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ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



ADVENT, CHRISTMAS 
NEW YEAR, EASTER 
and OTHER SERMONS 



By 

Robert Stuart MacArthur 

Minister of Calvary Baptist Church, New York 
since May, 1870 



O time by holy prophets long foretold, 
Time waited for by saints in days of old, 
O sweet, auspicious morn 
When Christ the Lord was born ! 

—PHCEBE CARY 



Philadelphia 

American Baptist Publication Society 

Boston Chicago Atlanta 

New York St. Louis Dallas 



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Copyright 1908 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



Published February, 1908 



from tbe Society's own press 



PREFACE 

The sermons comprising this volume were, for 
the most part, preached on consecutive Sunday 
mornings or evenings. Those on the " Wells of the 
Bible " were preached during the summer ; the 
others, with the exception of the " Anniversary 
Sermon," were preached quite recently in the regular 
order of the author's ministry. The sermon com- 
memorating the thirty-fifth anniversary of the pas- 
torate, although somewhat out of date as compared 
with the other sermons, is given because of the 
intrinsic interest in the facts it gives concerning the 
kingdom of God. In their publication it has been 
thought best to retain the style of pulpit address. 

The author sincerely hopes that these sermons 
may help all readers to make due preparation for the 
Second Advent of Christ, whose first Advent the 
earlier sermons in the volume are intended to honor. 



Robert Stuart MacArthur. 

Calvary Study, New York, 
February, 1907. 



CONTENTS 



Sermon 

I. Preparing for Advent .... 
II. The Advent Prophecy .... 

III. History and the Advent . . . 

IV. Gloria in Excelsis 

V. The Incarnation of the Word 

VI. The Raising of Jairus' Daughter 

VII. The Raising of the Widow's Son 

VIII. The Dying Lad and the Living Well 

IX. The Suitor and Maiden at the Well 

X. Stopped Wells Re-opened. . . . 

XI. Marah — the Well of Bitterness 

XII. Living Waters for Thirsty Souls 

XIII. Establishment and Strength . . 

XIV. The Power of the Gospel . . . 
XV. Stirring into Flame God's Gifts 

XVI. Excuses for Procrastination . . 

XVII. Names in the Book of Life. . . 

XVIII. Lessons of the Closing Year , . 

XIX. God's Guidance for the New Year 

XX. The Empty Tomb of Jesus .... 



Page 

9 

25 
40 

54 
68 
81 

97 
112 
124 

137 
149 
162 

173 
190 
202 
215 
- 230 

243 
258 
270 



Advent and Other Sermons 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT 

Text: The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert 
a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and 
every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked 
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. — Isa. 
40 : 3, 4- 

THOSE who observe what is known as the 
ecclesiastical year speak of to-day as the first 
Sunday in Advent. In the Greek Church the period 
of Advent comprises forty days, as does the period 
of Lent; but in the Roman Church, the Lutheran 
Church, and other churches which observe the period 
of Advent, it covers only four weeks. The period of 
Advent was not generally adopted as a church 
festival until the sixth century. The idea then grew 
up in the church that each year ought in some 
measure to repeat the leading events in the life of 
our Lord. That is the fundamental idea in what is 
called the Christian year ; and the period of Advent 
was set apart as a season of preparation for Christ's 

9 



IO ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

literal coming. It is true also that one other purpose 
in observing this season with Christian services was 
to weaken the effect of the gross and sensual 
festivals that were observed among the heathen at 
this season. To keep the Christians from contamina- 
tion by these heathen festivals a Christian festival 
was organized for the same period of the year. This 
remark applies emphatically to the Christmas and 
the Easter festivals. 

Freedom of Action. 

If any ecclesiastical authority commanded us to 
observe this period, we might resist the command. 
If any ecclesiastical authority forbade us to observe 
this period, again we might be disposed to resist 
that authority. In our church, most fortunately, we 
have large liberty in the choice of subjects and in the 
time and manner of their discussion. In the exercise 
of that liberty of choice I propose this morning to 
begin a series of " Advent Sermons " which will con- 
tinue until the Sunday nearest Christmas. There 
are two good reasons why this liberty should thus be 
exercised. The first reason is that there is always 
a gain in presenting religious truth when that truth 
is in the very atmosphere of the time. He would be 
a very unwise man who should neglect the Easter- 
tide, and should choose the month of July for a 
series of sermons on the Resurrection; but he is 
greatly wise who preaches on that topic when the 
thoughts of the people are filled with the general 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT II 

subject. The other reason is that by a modified 
observance of the ecclesiastical year there will be 
greater symmetry in the subjects presented in the 
pulpits. There is aways a tendency for preachers to 
discuss with great emphasis and frequency their 
own favorite topics; thus some men preach almost 
exclusively on a few themes, and other preachers 
on other but equally few topics. Some pastors 
seldom speak in public without saying much about 
the second coming of Christ. These men would be 
more useful if they realized that truth is a circle, 
and not a segment. The Bible is shorn of much of 
its power when that fact is forgotten, and when men 
deal largely only in segments, rather than in circles 
of truth. We always strive to present in this pulpit, 
with some degree of symmetry, the truths of the 
Christian system, as these truths are presented in 
the Christian Scriptures. 

In harmony with this thought and purpose the 
text for this morning is chosen. Next Sunday 
morning I shall speak on ' Prophecy and the Ad- 
vent " ; the Sunday morning following that I shall 
speak of " History and the Advent " ; and the Sun- 
day following that will be a discussion of the actual 
birth of our Lord in Bethlehem. 

Comfort for the Afflicted. 

Even the cursory reader of the prophecy of Isaiah 
must clearly see that the general design of the 
fortieth chapter, and of the entire section beginning 



12 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

with this chapter and going to the end of the book, 
is to comfort the afflicted people of God in their 
exile. The writer thinks of them as still in Babylon, 
but he also conceives of them as near the end of their 
long and painful banishment. When his thought 
sweeps back to Jerusalem he discovers that the 
temple is in ruins, the city is destroyed, and the 
whole land is in a state of waste and desolation. But 
there is hope also in this prophetic outlook ; for the 
long captivity is seen to be near its end, and the 
exiled people are soon to be restored to the land they 
love. The prophet, however, under the influence 
of a divine inspiration, speaks comfortably to 
Jerusalem; her sins are forgiven, her punishment 
is completed, and she shall receive double for 
all her sins. Thus the note of joy is struck, a note 
whose strains, echoing over the desert, shall bring 
cheer to the captives in distant Babylon. 

Preparation Indicated. 

I want you, in the first place, to catch the thought 
of this preparation as that thought is illustrated in 
the journey of kings and other distinguished per- 
sonages. The great deliverance here promised has 
several meanings; of these I shall speak more 
fully a little later. The image which represents all 
of them is taken from the march of earthly con- 
querors and regal personages. The royal cavalcade 
is about to start on its journey; the horses are har- 
nessed and mounted. In the wilderness now are 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT 1 3 

heard the echoes of the herald's cry, proclaiming that 
every obstacle is to be removed, so that the royal 
procession may march without interruption and 
without inconvenience. Proclamations of Eastern 
monarchs make us quite familiar with this method 
of procedure. When they went on a journey, and 
especially through an inhospitable country, and over 
trackless deserts and mountains, they sent out their 
harbingers, their forerunners, their heralds, demand- 
ing that preparation be made for the advent of the 
king. In such circumstances this proclamation was 
an absolute necessity. In doing this it was often 
necessary to find fording-places over the streams, or 
to construct bridges; it was necessary to level the 
high hills or to find a road around them; it was 
necessary also to fill up the valleys or over them 
to construct causeways. It was needful thus to 
open a way through the howling wilderness and over 
the trackless deserts. 

Roads in the modern sense of that term, were un- 
known in those days; indeed, roads in many coun- 
tries are almost unknown in our day. Roads are 
among the best evidences of civilization. There are 
many countries to-day in which there are no roads 
worth describing. Roads are prophets of civiliza- 
tion; roads are evangelists of progress. No roads, 
no education; no education, no roads — the two 
always go together, whether in European, Asian, or 
South American countries. The Romans were the 
great builders of roads, and the Romans in the 



14 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

days of Isaiah had not begun their work. Later they 
girdled the civilized world with roads. You will 
find their roads to-day in England and in Scotland, 
and still in good condition, these superb roads built 
by the Romans, the greatest road-makers the world 
has ever known. The Roman empire has passed 
away, but the Roman roads abide. They were more 
enduring than the thrones of the Roman emperors. 
The man who builds a good road is a great bene- 
factor to any county, State, or nation. Railways 
are civilizers. 

All these statements find abundant illustration in 
the case of Semiramis, the legendary queen of 
Assyria, who founded Babylon and built the city 
with magnificence and splendor, with its walls, 
gates, palaces, and temples. She conquered Persia, 
Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia, and invaded India. 
She made a triumphal progress into Media and 
Persia and Armenia. In the account of this journey, 
we are told that in her march to Ecbatana she came 
to the Zarcean mountains, which were full of preci- 
pices and hollows. She could not make the journey 
without taking a great circle around the mountains. 
Being desirous of leaving an enduring memorial of 
herself, as well as of shortening the distance, she 
ordered the hills to be lowered and the hollows to be 
filled. She thus made the road shorter and the 
journey more expeditious ; the road thus constructed 
is still called the road of Queen Semiramis. We are 
also told that this was her common practice in all 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT 1 5 

the countries to which she went. Her story is 
evidently an epitome of Assyrian history attached to 
the names of Ninus and Semiramis. Her name 
means a " mountain-dove " ; she is said to have been 
changed into a dove and finally to have become a 
deity. Something of her ambition for road-making 
was shown by Napoleon when he made his historic 
march into Italy. He then cleft a passage through 
the mountains, accomplishing one of the greatest 
engineering achievements of modern times. The 
road was constructed from 1800 to 1806, under 
Napoleon's orders. It is forty-two miles long and 
is carried across six hundred and eleven bridges. 
You will readily see the relation of his great enter- 
prise to the case in hand. 

Babylon was separated from Judea by an immense 
tract of country, and much of the journey was 
through the country known as Arabia Deserta. 
This was a continuous desert. It is mentioned in 
history as a very remarkable thing that Nebuchad- 
nezzar, having heard of the death of his father, and 
being desirous of going from Egypt to Babylon, 
went through this very desert. This was the most 
direct way for the Jews to return from Babylon. We 
do not know what road they took, although it is not 
at all unlikely that they passed through this very 
wilderness. 

The first application of the language here em- 
ployed is to the return of the Jews from Babylon 
to their own land. The prophet hears the herald 



l6 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

making proclamation. The redemption of God's 
people was clearly foretold; it is now about to be 
accomplished. Jehovah was to march through the 
desert at the head of his people. He is to make as 
triumphal a progress now as he accomplished when 
he marched at the head of Israel when they returned 
from their Egyptian bondage. 

But the thought goes deeper far. There is to be 
a more glorious march of the great God; he is to 
come as a babe in Bethlehem's manger; he is to 
appear in human form. He has sent out his heralds 
commanding men throughout the world to prepare 
the way for the approach of the heavenly King. We 
are more than warranted in making this application 
of these ancient words, by the words of John the 
Baptist (Matt. 3 : 1-12), read to you as the second 
lesson of this morning. He was the chosen herald 
of the great King; he was the celestially appointed 
harbinger. He went through the wilderness saying, 
" Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make his paths 
straight" 

Present Preparation Needed. 

But I make a third and more personal application 
of these words, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord " ; 
construct ye a highway for this new-born King into 
your hearts, into your homes, into your church. The 
whole world, in a very real sense, in all movements 
of civilization, is a preparation for the coming of 
the new-born King. All the highways of commerce, 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT IJ 

properly considered, are paths for Jesus as King. 
Every steamship and every railway is a highway for 
Jesus Christ. We miss the meaning of modern 
progress unless we have this conception clearly in 
mind. Think for a moment of the highways for 
Christ in India to-day because of the construction 
of railways in that land. When the early mission- 
aries went there railways were unknown; journeys 
were long, slow, and difficult. Men construct rail- 
ways to gratify their personal ambition and to add 
to their personal emolument; then the great God 
stretches forth his arm and puts his hand on that 
railway and thus consecrates it to a higher civiliza- 
tion and makes it literally a highway for the messen- 
gers of the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Men 
construct steamships in order to advance the inter- 
ests of commerce; they put the flags of different 
nations at the masts of these steamers, but the eye 
of faith can see the banner of Immanuel above the 
flag of Britain and the flag of America, as these 
steamships circumnavigate the globe. He is not a 
far-seeing philosopher who is not a Christian states- 
man and patriot; he is devoid of true vision who 
does not discover that all the triumphs of modern 
civilization are triumphs of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. 

We have talked much of " Darkest Africa," but 
the children in our Sunday-schools to-day will not 
reach middle life before the phrase " Darkest 
Africa " will have disappeared from the vocabulary 



l8 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

of every nation in the world. If ever there was a 
movement in the interest of the kingdom of God, it 
is the " Cape-to-Cairo Railway." That railway will 
banish the present darkness forever. Along that 
track will come the messengers of the gospel and 
all Africa shall be illumined with the light of him 
who has proclaimed himself to be the Light of the 
World. 

The moment railways went into Salt Lake City, 
Mormonism was doomed. Mormonism struggled 
on for a time; unfortunately it is in existence still. 
Brigham Young believed when he went to that 
valley that he had gone outside of civilization — had 
gone beyond the reach of the laws of the United 
States. Civilization followed him; railways were 
erected, and the first railway that blew its whistle, 
awaking the echoes in Salt Lake Valley, sounded 
forth the doom of Mormonism. All the discoveries 
of modern life are the harbingers of Jesus Christ. 
All the more humane applications of law are in the 
! interest of the gospel. All reforms along the line 
of alleviating sorrow, humanizing punishment, and 
lessening suffering are in harmony with the gospel 
of Christ. These are all preparatory paths for the 
great King. Indeed, the great King has gone before 
the railways ; he has made them possible. He is the 
author of modern civilization. Jesus Christ ought 
to be crowned as King in the markets of the world ; 
indeed, even now, wherever his name goes, there 
law, equity, and righteousness, to some degree, pre- 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT 19 

vail. Not only through the gates of the olden proph- 
ecies was the King to come, but through the tri- 
umphal arches of modern progress shall the Messiah 
march. This thought fills me with unspeakable 
joy, with boundless enthusiasm, and with holy aspi- 
ration. I thus see the august presence of the Son 
of God on every steamship, on every railway, and 
in every business achievement around the globe. 

If we reflect we shall discover that telegraphs, 
and especially wireless telegraphy, are making the 
whole world a whispering gallery; if we listen we 
shall hear the name that is above every name, the 
name that is the sweetest music that ever fell upon 
human ear — the name of Jesus Christ, echoing 
throughout the world! The whole world is illu- 
mined with his light, and is vocal with his praise. 
Thus it comes to pass that as students of politics, 
national and international, we ought to bring all our 
studies of all the nations of the earth into the service 
of Jesus Christ. We ought to build our studio on 
Calvary and, in the light that radiates from the 
cross, study the great movements now in progress 
in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and among 
all the nations of the earth. 

Personal Preparation. 

Will you come a little closer home? I ask that 
we make a still more personal preparation for the 
coming of the King/ We are to fill up the valleys 
of unbelief, of doubt, in order that the King may 



20 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

pass over into our hearts. I do not believe that this 
is peculiarly a skeptical age ; it is an inquisitive age. 
It is skeptical in the primary meaning of the word 
skeptical, and not in its secondary and less favorable 
meaning. The primary meaning of skeptic is 
thoughtful, reflective, inquiring. It comes from the 
Greek word skeptomai to look carefully, to ex- 
amine critically. Unfortunately the word has now 
an undesirable meaning. It often correctly describes 
a man who does not carefully study, does not wisely 
think, but who doubts before he has consider- 
ately examined the subject on which he pronounces 
an oracular opinion. I urge you to-day to believe 
your beliefs and to doubt your doubts. Do you 
catch my thought? Young men and women, and 
older men and women often reverse this order; 
they doubt their beliefs, and believe their doubts. 
That is a supremely silly method of reasoning. 
Those who so act do not deserve the name of 
thinker; they are intellectually foolish; they are 
sciolists and not scientists. Think of the folly of 
believing our doubts and doubting our beliefs ! Let 
me exhort you to reverse that order and again urge 
you to believe your beliefs and to doubt your doubts. 
No preacher ought to preach the things that he does 
not know; so preaching, some preachers would 
have a very long creed. There are things enough 
that you do not know and believe yourselves. The 
business of the pulpit is not to create doubt, but to 
declare truth. Fill up the valleys of doubt by the 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT 21 

granite rocks of faith. Better have a short creed 
and believe every bit of it than have a creed twice 
as long and believe only half of it. One reason why 
I oppose the long creeds is because they are incita- 
tions to doubt on many points. Hold on firmly to a 
few great beliefs. Believe in God; believe in his 
Son, Jesus Christ. You may have doubts as to how 
he came into humanity. Do not attach undue im- 
portance to your doubts so long as you believe in 
Christ as your personal Saviour. He was in human- 
ity. You may have various theories of the incarna- 
tion; firmly hold the great fact. Christ was incar- 
nated. You may doubt whether or not he was truly 
divine and also and truly human. Never mind the 
doubts so long as you truly follow him; following, 
loving, obeying him, your doubts will soon and for- 
ever vanish. He was the Ideal Man. Follow him. 
He will assuredly lead you out into a large place of 
faith, peace, and love. 

I met a man the other day who was full of doubt. 
He said, " I do not know whether Jesus was divine 
or not." I said, " I shall not now discuss the ques- 
tion with you. I shall not argue with you at this 
stage in your religious history. Are you willing to 
admit that Jesus was the most perfect being that 
ever walked this earth? Are you willing to-day to 
take Jesus Christ as the model, as the ideal of your 
life ? Are you willing to follow him as your Guide, 
Saviour, and Lord ? " These questions brought him 
to a point where he stopped. He was not willing to 



22 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

follow Christ ; he was willing to argue at any length 
regarding Christ's personality, but he was not will- 
ing to follow Christ as Lord and Master. I said, " I 
shall not talk longer to you. What is the use of 
giving you more light when you will not walk in 
the light you have ? " This man would not take 
Christ as the model of his life; he would not walk 
in the light he had. I said further to him, " Go 
down on your knees here and now and submit to 
Jesus Christ as the ideal of your life." This he 
refused to do. O submit now to Jesus Christ! O 
do here and now give him your heart! Then, 
I assure you, your difficulties will vanish. They 
will all be scattered like the mists of the morn- 
ing, when the sun rises with light, and glory, 
and healing in its beams. He that doeth the 
will of God shall know the doctrine of God. This is 
the statement of a philosophical principle ; this is 
the formulation of a universal law. Fill up the 
valleys of unbelief. Let Jesus into your hearts and 
lives this morning. Admitting him you soon shall 
walk in the light of his countenance and in the joy 
of his conscious peace and love. 

Removing Obstacles. 

The best way to fill up the valleys is to level down 
the hills. In building railways, men always take, 
when that course is possible, the earth from the hills 
and dump it into the valleys. They thus accomplish 
a twofold purpose. The pathway to some of your 



PREPARING FOR ADVENT 23 

hearts is covered with hills of pride. Pride is one of 
the most subtle of all the temptations of the devil. 
Men can be proud that they are not proud. They 
can be swelled out with pride, while they are declar- 
ing to you their humility. You remember that 
Diogenes sneered at Plato's abundant feast ; he came 
dressed in rags and eating the plainest food and 
said, " Thus I trample on the pride of Plato." Plato 
turned and said, " Yes, but with greater pride in 
Diogenes." He was prouder of his rags than Plato 
was of his decent clothes. So to-day men are de- 
ceived; they are proud that they are not proud. 
They are exalted because of their humility. They 
are just like the Pharisee, who strutted about, thank- 
ing God that he was not as other men. So there are 
men to-day saying, " We are far better than church- 
members. We are a thousand times better than 
other men are." Oh, poor, inflated Pharisees ! The 
Pharisee in our Lord's parable did not really pray at 
all ; he simply delivered an oration to God. He vir- 
tually said, " See how good I am. See how often I 
fast. See what tithes I pay. I am not like other 
men, especially like that poor, wretched publican 
yonder." But the publican stood at a distance, beat- 
ing his breast and saying, " God be merciful to me 
the sinner." And Jesus said, " I tell you, this man 
went down to his house justified rather than the 
other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be 
abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be ex- 
alted." Your spiritual pride, young men and young 



24 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

women, and older men and women, your self- 
righteousness — this is your condemnation. You are 
covered with the rags of your self-righteousness, 
and Jesus wants to tear from you with his pierced 
hand that wretched robe; he stands ready to cover 
you with the spotless robe of his righteousness. 

I might speak also of the hills of inconsistency 
in Christians. These hills are keeping Jesus out of 
the church, and out of your home, and out of your 
hearts. O men and women, get into line with God. 
I want you to construct a highway for Jesus by 
prayer and zeal, by faith and love. I earnestly 
proclaim in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the way of 
the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for 
our God." 



II 

THE ADVENT PROPHECY 

Text: To him give all the prophets witness. — Acts 
io : 43- 

MOST wonderful are the prophecies in the 
Bible concerning Jesus Christ. The Bible is 
a unit. One thought pervades it from Genesis 
to Revelation. One dominant purpose underlies 
prophecy and history, parable and poem. Although 
it took sixteen hundred years to write the Bible, and 
although perhaps forty human writers, representing 
all degrees of social life, intellectual culture, and 
spiritual attainment were employed in this sacred 
composition, still a complete unity marks the entire 
book. There is, indeed, a great difference between 
the Psalms of David and the Epistles of Paul; but 
it is the difference between the moon showing us a 
crescent of her disk and the moon in the fulness of 
her beauty; it is the difference between the gray 
dawn of the morning and the splendor of noonday. 
One thought pervades the Book as the diapason per- 
vades, unifies, and dominates a great oratorio. 

The Bible a Unity. 

The unity of the Bible, considering the manner 
of its human origin, is one of its great wonders and 

25 



26 .ADVENT AXD OTHER SERMONS 

one of its divine beauties. If we deny its divine in- 
spiration, it seems impossible to account for its 
historic and spiritual unity. The charm of this 
unity grows upon us the more we study the sacred 
records. This unity is internal rather than exter- 
nal, essential and not accidental, spiritual rather 
than merely literary. 

It is delightful to note this unity in the harmony 
which marks considerable sections of the Bible. The 
first three chapters and the last three chapters of 
the Bible show a harmonious unity to a remarkable 
degree. Those who have never studied these six 
chapters with the thought of their harmony in mind, 
will be surprised and delighted at its discovery. In 
the first three chapters of Genesis we have the first 
heaven and the first earth ruined by the sin of man. 
In the last three chapters of Revelation we have 
an account of a new heaven and a new earth, the 
tabernacle of God being with men. In Genesis we 
had the victory of the tempter ; in Revelation we 
have his utter overthrow and his eternal doom. In 
that first section in Genesis we had paradise lost : 
in this last section of Revelation we have paradise 
regained. In the first section of Genesis we had 
Adam with his new-found bride, and both of them 
tempted and fallen ; in the last section of Revelation 
we have the second Adam with his holy and blessed 
bride, the church, forever safe and glorious. In the 
earlier section we have death and misery. In the 
later Scripture we have life and felicity. 



THE ADVENT PROPHECY 2J 

In the beginning of the New Testament, as in the 
beginning of the Old Testament, we had the holy 
and blessed Emmanuel, God with us ; and in Revela- 
tion, the crowning joy of the redeemed is their 
consciousness of God's presence, their rapturous 
realization of God once again as Emmanuel. This 
presence is the grand consummation, the glorious 
triumph, the blessed victory won by the " strong 
Son of God." 

Let us now walk over the hilltops of Old Testa- 
ment history, and in doing so we certainly shall see 
Jesus at every step as " the desire of all nations/' 
whatever interpretation may be given to that phrase 
as used by the prophet Haggai. Going back to the 
gates of Eden we see Christ as the seed of the 
woman which shall bruise the head of the serpent. 
Between the posterity of the woman and wicked men 
there should be eternal enmity. This assurance of 
victory is a glorious promise. The warfare between 
these contending parties will continue until Christ 
and his people shall win a complete victory over the 
devil and his angels. It is true that the serpent 
would bruise the heel of man, but in order to do 
so he had to put his head under that heel. This is 
really the first gospel promise found in the Bible. 
Even with a partial understanding of its full import, 
this promise must have given unspeakable joy to 
Adam and Eve. Other promises speedily followed, 
but this one has the honor of being the first evan- 
gelical promise in the Bible. 



28 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Moving forward, we come to Christ as the seed 
of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth 
shall be blessed. The name Abram now becomes 
Abraham (Gen. 17 : 5), this latter form of the 
name meaning " father of a multitude. " An ever- 
lasting covenant is now established between God and 
the descendants of Abraham in their generations ; 
and the land of Canaan is given them for an ever- 
lasting possession. 

The Early Voices. 

We take another step and find Christ known as 
Shiloh; with this name is the promise that the 
scepter shall not depart from Judah, and that unto 
Christ shall the gathering of the people be. This 
seems to be a clear prediction of the Messiah, al- 
though there are various opinions regarding the 
origin and literal meaning of the word Shiloh. Per- 
haps the better interpretation of the word makes it 
signify the Tranquilizer, the Pacificator, the Giver 
of Peace. If this is the correct interpretation of the 
word Shiloh, it is a title preeminently applicable to 
the Messiah. At his birth the proclamation of " Peace 
on earth, good-will toward men," was made, and an 
important part of his mission was to restore peace 
between God and man. The Messiah was the dis- 
penser of the blessings of grace, and the King of 
Peace ; he thus presents a new aspect — that of peace- 
maker — whom eventually all the nations of the earth 
shall obey as the Prince of Peace. 



THE ADVENT PROPHECY 29 

In Numbers 24 : 17 we behold him as the Star 
out of Jacob, and a Scepter arising out of Israel. 
We know that these titles of the Messiah are a part 
of the mysterious prophecy of Balaam, the son of 
Beor. If the reference is to the Messiah, Balaam 
must have prophesied under a divine impulse; it 
would seem as if the previous parts of this discourse 
had contemplated the Messiah, though he was not 
expressly named. If this ancient prophecy is brought 
into parallelism with the gospel record of Christ's 
birth, we shall be struck with the harmony between 
the two. It cannot be forgotten that, in connection 
with our Lord's birth, a mysterious star guided the 
Magi from the East to the manger in Bethlehem 
where the Christ was born. This movement of the 
mysterious star was the going forth of the star as 
beheld in anticipative vision. In the East a star has 
always been regarded as a symbol of some great 
event. Probably Balaam used the word star meta- 
phorically to designate some illustrious ruler. Al- 
though the star seen by the Magi appeared first in 
the Eastern world, this fact does not really contra- 
dict the phrase, " Star out of Jacob," because the 
Messiah, in his earthly humanity, came from the 
midst of the nation collectively known as Jacob. It is 
almost certain that the star of the Magi stands in 
close relation to the star of Balaam. This suggestion 
is supported where our Lord expressly speaks of 
himself as " the root and offspring of David, the 
bright and morning Star." 



30 advent and other sermons 

The Growing Light. 

The light grows brighter as we move forward ; the 
voices become plainer and the reading more legible. 
Now the Messiah is spoken of as the great prophet 
and lawgiver like unto Moses : " The Lord thy God 
will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of 
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; unto him ye shall 
hearken" (Deut. 18 : 15). 

This prophet was to be great above all the 
prophets; by him God was to make himself known 
to men more fully than ever before. This prophet 
was really the divine Word, by whom the will of God 
was to be revealed. The points of similarity be- 
tween the Messiah and Moses are very striking. 
Both were raised up out of the midst of their 
brethren. Both were the messengers of a new dis- 
pensation. If the details of their lives were com- 
pared, the similarity would be markedly apparent; 
and the death of Moses immediately suggests the 
ascension of Christ. 

The Messiah fulfils, in his life and work, this 
ancient prophecy regarding his likeness to Moses. 
Was Moses a prophet and lawgiver to Israel? 
Vastly more so was the Messiah. Did Moses de- 
liver the people out of Egypt? Christ delivers his 
people from a still greater bondage. Was Moses the 
founder of a new dispensation? Christ became the 
head of a new race. Was Moses faithful as a serv- 
ant? Christ was still more faithful as a Son. 



THE ADVENT PROPHECY 3 1 

Both were prophets, both were lawgivers, both 
were teachers, both were mediators, and the like- 
ness between them is suggestively exact in general 
and in detail. This parallelism is not fanciful but 
accords with solid fact. 

The Voice of David. 

Five hundred years pass; again we listen to the 
voice of prophetic Scripture. Great changes have 
taken place in this little country of Palestine; it 
stands now in new relations to surrounding nations. 
Great David sits on his lofty throne, and he has 
united the tribes into one nation. This nation is 
harmonious at home and powerful abroad. In the 
midst of peace and prosperity, David is seated on his 
throne as the type of Him who is David's Son and 
David's Lord. David strikes his harp and it gives 
forth melodious music. The Messiah was the theme 
of his loftiest poetry. There can be no poetry, 
in the highest sense of that term, except it be 
religious. Our noblest hymns chant the name of 
Jesus Christ. Men who deny the divinity of Christ 
cannot write poetry which most profoundly touches 
the heart and most mightily exalts the soul. Athe- 
ism never wrote a great hymn; the life that is 
bounded by the horizon of this world can never rise 
to the loftiest heights of poetry and music. Faith 
alone writes immortal songs and sings in celestial 
strains. Hear the echoes of David's resonant harp 
in the Second and the Fortieth psalms: 



3^ ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

I will tell of the decree : 

Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my Son; 

This day have I begotten thee. 

Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations 

for thine inheritance, 
And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy 

possession. 

Then said I, Lo, I am come; 

In the roll of the book it is written of me: 

I delight to do thy will, O my God. 

In the first of these quotations the Anointed One, 
or the Messiah, is introduced, proclaiming Jehovah's 
counsel concerning himself; a promise had been 
made to him that he should reign not by the will 
of man, but by the grace of God. There cannot be 
the slightest doubt that " I " here refers to the 
Messiah. The introduction of a new personality at 
this point in the psalm gives it marked dramatic 
interest. The quotation from the Fortieth psalm 
the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews directly 
applies to the Messiah. It is not easy to see how 
this could be applied to David, but most naturally 
and beautifully does it apply to the Messiah. He 
came to do the will of God by perfect obedience to 
the divine law, and he became obedient unto death 
in making an atonement for sin. 

The Voice of Isaiah. 

We take another step. A period of between two 
hundred and three hundred years has passed. We 



THE ADVENT PROPHECY 33 

now listen to the voice of Isaiah the evangelical 
prophet. It is a voice of mingled sweetness, mystery, 
and majesty; so majestic a voice has not hitherto 
been heard from the lips of any prophet regarding 
the advent of the Messiah. Isaiah sings loftily of 
him as the Child of hope, as the Comforter of his 
people, as the Redeemer of men, and as the Prince 
of Peace. Listen, not to my poor descriptions of 
Isaiah's glowing and glorious prophecies, but hear 
his own wonderful words: 

" Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a 
sign : Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, 
and shall call his name Immanuel " (Isa. 7 : 14). 

" And there shall come forth a shoot out of the 
stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall 
bear fruit : and the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon 
him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the 
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge 
and of the fear of Jehovah " (Isa. 11 : 1, 2). 

" For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is 
given ; and the government shall be upon his shoul- 
der : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- 
sellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of 
Peace " (Isa. 9:6). 

Than this collocation of majestic names there is 
nothing more sublime in literature, ancient or mod- 
ern. Every title is in harmony with the characteris- 
tics of the Messiah as they are manifested in his 
unique life, death, and resurrection. The majesty 
of these titles poets have endeavored to sing and 
c 



34 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

musicians to echo; but the loftiest genius of both 
arts falls far short of the celestial glory and divine 
mystery and majesty of the titles themselves. 

The criticism of modern scholarship on these 
wonderful words is not unknown to me as I quote 
them. The doctrine taught by these quotations is 
the subject of sharp discussion to-day. It will be 
the subject of still sharper discussion during the 
next decade. But the words will sing themselves 
through all the comments of critics, through all the 
churches of Christ, through all the creeds of Chris- 
tendom, and through all the centuries of history, 
whatever critics, higher or lower, may say. 

We take another step forward. About one hun- 
dred years pass and the voice of the plaintive Jere- 
miah is heard. This timid, modest, shrinking man 
can sing a noble song when Christ is his subject. 
He was a mere youth when the Lord first came to 
him in the thirteenth year of Josiah, 629 b. c. Hear 
his words as he looks down the vista of the coming 
years : " Behold, the day is come, saith Jehovah that 
I will raise unto David a righteous branch and he 
shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall exe- 
cute justice and righteousness in the land. In his 
days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell 
safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be 
called: Jehovah our righteousness " (Jer. 33: 
14-16). 

This latter name of the Messiah is peculiarly in- 
structive and beautiful. Christ is spoken of as 



THE ADVENT PROPHECY 35 

Jehovah Tsidkenu, Jehovah our Righteousness. 
Here we have one name of God, Jehovah, expressing 
his eternal and self-existence; but the other name, 
Tsidkenu, describes him as our mediator. This is a 
blessed name. Jeremiah, we thank thee for this 
sweet thought, for this comforting title, for this 
glorious prophecy. We add this heavenly note to 
the divine song of Christ's advent which echoes 
through the ages. 

We now listen to another voice. It is the voice 
of him who descended from one of the highest 
families in Judah, if not a family even of royal 
blood. The voice comes from the court of Babylon ; 
it is the voice of the brave, the noble, the prayer- 
ful Daniel. In his new career he received the polish 
of education which Oriental etiquette demands of all 
courtiers. He gives us clear predictions of the 
Messiah as the Redeemer ; he gives us detailed state- 
ments of his character and work, statements which 
were literally illustrated in our Lord's life. His 
words may be found especially in the ninth chapter, 
and in other parts of the book which bears his name. 
His advanced age did not permit him to return with 
his people to Palestine, but never for a moment did 
their interest fail to fill his heart with hope and joy. 
No other Old Testament prophet showed so accurate 
a knowledge of the political vicissitudes of the em- 
pires of the world; but especially did he see the 
glory of the coming kingdom of the divine Messiah. 

Let us now hear the voice of one of the twelve 



36 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

minor prophets, Micah, who prophesied 759-699 
b. c. and was consequently a contemporary of Isaiah. 
No one of his noble prophecies is so interesting to 
the Christian as that in which the native place of 
the Messiah is announced; the mention of this 
name is instructive in the greatest degree : 

" But thou, Bethlehem Ephratha, which art little 
to be among thousands of Judah, out of thee shall 
one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel ; 
whose goings forth are from of old, from everlast- 
ing" (Micah 5 : 2). 

This is the Scripture which guided the scribes 
who told Herod where Christ should be born; and 
it was universally known among the Jews that Christ 
should come out of the town of Bethlehem. It was 
fitting that he who is the " Bread of Life " should 
be born in a town whose name signifies the " house 
of bread." From this small and insignificant place 
was to come the Messiah who should fill earth and 
heaven with the glory of his majestic name. Near 
this place Jacob buried his beloved Rachel. Here 
Ruth gleaned in the wheat-fields of Boaz ; and here 
David showed his youthful valor in protecting his 
father's flocks. How could Micah have mentioned 
Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah seven 
hundred years before the event, had he not been 
guided by the Spirit of God? How could he have 
known of the action of the Roman government in 
the taxing of the people, and the consequent journey 
to Bethlehem, by mere human knowledge? 



the advent prophecy $j 

The Voice of Zechariah. 

We pass over the possible prophecy of Haggai 
and of the voices of others and listen to the words 
of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, eleventh in the 
order of the minor prophets. He comforts the 
people with pledges of protection, although other 
nations should be swept away, and then he sketches 
with vivid touch the picture of the blessings and 
glories of the advent of the Messiah : 

"Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, 
I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith 
Jehovah" (2 : 10). 

" Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O 
daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh 
unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, 
and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, the foal of 
an ass " (9:9). 

' In that day there shall be a fountain opened to 
the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem, for sin and for uncleanness " (13 : 1). 

Time does not permit me to make comments of 
any length on these wonderful prophecies. Indeed, 
comment is not necessary. Every reader of the 
New Testament sees at a glance how literally these 
prophecies were fulfilled in the unique birth and life 
of Him who was Son of man and Son of God. 

Reference might have been made to Job, in the 
land of Uz, who speaks of the Messiah as his liv- 
ing Redeemer; quotations might also have been 



38 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

made from other Old Testament writers, but the 
witness of a sufficient number of prophets has been 
given to establish the identity of the Messiah. We 
therefore come now to Malachi, the last writer in the 
canon of the Old Testament, who was probably 
contemporary with Nehemiah, as in his time the 
second temple was already built. 

He declares that John the Baptist, the harbinger 
of the Messiah, should be sent, and that the Messiah 
would come suddenly to his temple at Jerusalem. 
" Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall pre- 
pare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye 
seek shall suddenly come to his temple " (Mai. 

3: i)- 

" But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun 
of Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings " 
(Mai. 4:2). 

We know that when forty days old Christ was pre- 
sented in the temple ; at twelve years of age he was 
in the temple as his Father's house; and when he 
made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem he went 
directly to the temple. Malachi teaches us that the 
Lord would purify the sons of Levi, and would 
speedily exterminate prevailing evils. He further 
assures us that the Messiah shall make up his 
jewels and shall distinguish between the righteous 
and the wicked. Christ, as the light of the world, 
comes with healing in his beams; in him the day- 
spring from on high visited the people. 

It thus comes to pass that all the voices of all 



THE ADVENT PROPHECY 39 

the prophets bore witness to Jesus Christ as the 
Messiah of God. These voices were parts of the 
divine " Oratorio of the Messiah." All is now in 
readiness for his august advent. We are with the 
shepherds of Bethlehem. They are watching their 
flocks. Suddenly, before the dazzled eyes of these 
shepherds, the glory of the Lord appeared with out- 
streaming splendor. They are hushed into solemn 
and holy awe as a celestial soloist, an angel, chants 
the song of the long-promised Messiah. No sooner 
is his voice hushed than the attendant angels burst 
forth into the sweetest words ever heard by human 
ears : " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace, good-will toward men/' 

This was the sublime and divine Hallelujah 
Chorus of the " Oratorio of the Messiah," which 
all of the prophets had been singing in all countries 
and in all centuries. Men and women, will you re- 
ceive the Christ of God as your Saviour? Although 
there was no room for him in the inn, I beseech you 
to make room for him in your hearts. So, receiving 
him, and living with him, you shall one day reign 
with him in glory, and at last you shall sing, joining 
your voices with those of a great multitude in 
heaven, saying, " Unto him that loveth us and 
loosed us from our sins by his blood; to him be 
the glory and the dominion for ever and ever." This 
will be the sublime song of the consummation of the 
ages — the Hallelujah Chorus of the eternal Oratorio 
of the divine Messiah. 



Ill 

HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 

Text: But when the fullness of the time was come, God 
sent forth his Son. — Gal. 4 : 4. 

WE have this morning the next sermon in the 
course of " Advent Sermons." Last Sunday 
morning your attention was called to " Prophecy and 
the Advent " ; this morning it is called to " History 
and the Advent." The advent of Jesus Christ is the 
highest, the deepest, the tenderest, and the holiest 
event in the history of the race. The entrance of 
Jesus Christ into humanity is the most momentous 
occurrence known to human and perhaps to an- 
gelic history. It marked the close of the old dispen- 
sation, and it emphasized the beginning of the new 
dispensation. Christ's cradle is the turning-point in 
history, in literature, in art, in architecture, in re- 
ligion, and in all that goes to make the highest ele- 
ments of human civilization. It was, as suggested 
in another sermon in this volume, a great idea of 
Dionysius Exiguus, Dionysius the Little, who was a 
Scythian by birth and an abbot in Rome, when in 
the year a. d. 526, he devised a new calendar and 
dated it with the birth of Christ, as the beginning of 
a new era. He placed the birth in the seven hundred 
40 



HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 41 

and fifty-fourth year of Rome. We now know that 
he was in error by at least four years. He ought to 
have dated it the seven hundred and fiftieth year of 
Rome ; so that this ought to be 1910 instead of 1906. 
Nevertheless, it was a marvelous conception on the 
part of Dionysius to give us the birth of Christ as 
the beginning of this new era. All events before 
the Advent converged to the cradle of the Christ; 
all events since have diverged from the cradle of 
the Christ. He is the true student of history who 
studies all events, ancient, medieval, and modern, in 
the light that radiates from the cross. 

I propose this morning to consider the contribu- 
tion made by the three great nations of antiquity to 
the preparation for the advent of Christ. I shall not, 
indeed, speak of all the nations. We know that 
great streams of humanity went out from The 
Pamirs, the Bam-i-dunya, the ' Roof of the World," 
the elevated mountain region in central Asia, near 
the sources of the river Oxus. One stream flowed 
to Greece, to Rome, to France, to Spain, to Britain, 
and to Germany. Another stream flowed to Egypt ; 
and Egypt, ancient and modern, is the miracle of 
that Aryan migration. Still another stream flowed 
to India; and India, the mysterious and majestic, is 
the result of that historic stream flowing from the 
" Roof of the World." 

But in this discourse I limit my thought to three 
great nations — the Hebrew, the Greek, and the 
Roman. These nations contributed greatly toward 



42 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

the preparation of the world for the birth of Jesus 
Christ. 

Contribution of the Hebrews. 

The Hebrews performed a great part in preparing 
for the advent of Christ. This people witnessed for 
God amid the idolatries of surrounding nations. Ju- 
daism was an oasis in the darkness of the idolatrous 
peoples. Israel carried in its bosom the promise that 
in the posterity of Abraham all nations should be 
blessed. Moses the lawgiver; David, king and 
psalmist ; Isaiah the evangelical prophet ; and finally 
John the Baptist — these all had their part in prepar- 
ing the way for the coming of the Christ. The light 
grew brighter and brighter, until John the Baptist, 
standing with one foot in the old dispensation and 
one foot in the new, is permitted to lift up his eyes, 
and then his voice saying : " Behold the Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sin of the world ! " 

After the Babylonish captivity the Jews adhered 
tenaciously to the letter of the law, although often 
unfortunately ignorant of its spirit. They cher- 
ished bigoted horror of the heathen nations; and 
the Jews in turn were heartily hated by the heathen 
peoples. After the time of the Maccabees, one 
hundred and fifty years before Christ, they were 
divided into three mutually hostile sects. The most 
important of these sects was the Pharisees, once a 
most honorable name, meaning the " separate ones," 
those who were separated from ordinary persons by 



HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 43 

the correctness of their opinions and the holiness of 
their lives. But they finally were characterized by 
ritual formalism, by legal self-righteousness, and by 
fanatical bigotry. In the New Testament — with 
such rare and illustrious exceptions as Nicodemus, 
Gamaliel, and Paul — they were charged with gross 
hypocrisy. Dr. Philip Schaff has rightly called 
them " the Jewish Stoics." The next great sect 
was that of the Sadducees. They were skeptical, 
rationalistic, and secular. They corresponded in 
Judaism to the Epicureans in Greek and Roman 
heathenism. The third of these sects was that of the 
Essenes. They were a mystic and ascetic people 
living in monkish seclusion on the shores of the 
Dead Sea. But the Pharisees and the Sadducees 
were everywhere conspicuous as the foes of Jesus. 
These were the three great sects into which Judaism 
had fallen apart before the coming of Christ. Since 
the battle of Philippi, forty-two years before Christ, 
the Jews were subject to the heathen Romans. They 
were most cruelly governed by Herod the Idumaean, 
and by his sons, and by Roman procurators. They 
longed for political liberty; they sighed for a great 
national deliverer; they waited, hoped, and prayed 
for a temporal dominion more brilliant even than 
that in the days of great David. Josephus, their own 
historian, describes them as a people debased and 
ungodly, and as deserving all the punishment which 
they so terribly received in connection with the 
destruction of Jerusalem. 



44 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

The distinguishing characteristic of Hebrew civil- 
ization was religion. Renan tells us that the He- 
brew had a genius for religion; and the younger 
Humboldt said that they had a " talent for religion. " 
It must thus never be forgotten that the distinctive 
characteristic of Hebrew civilization was devotion 
to religion. With all the formalism of the Jewish 
people and with their occasional tendencies to 
idolatry, they nevertheless were in their deepest 
nature religious. They possessed the holy Scrip- 
tures; and their government was a theocracy, their 
ruler being Jehovah. They observed frequent 
festivals and they constantly offered sacrifices. 
Their wars, their heroes, their poetry, their music, 
were all sacred. All their life, public and private, 
all their daily employments were marked by sig- 
nificant religious ceremonies. Their deepest spirit 
was monotheistic and religious. The most illiterate 
peasant had his full share in these religious cere- 
monies as truly as the most learned rabbi. They 
worshiped one God. What are the best hymns of 
Greece? Must not the answer be that they are the 
vagaries of the mythological fancies of the Greek 
people? What was the literature of Rome? You 
are a student of Virgil, of Horace, of Livy, of Sal- 
lust. What was the religious literature of Rome? 
Did Roman literature ever give us a prayer? I say, 
without fear of contradiction, there is scarcely in all 
Roman literature any utterance which could properly 
be called a prayer. 



HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 45 

Now turn from the literature of Greece and Rome 
to the literature of the Hebrews and you find the 
Hebrew psalmists chanting songs of praise to God 
that fill the soul of every Christian to-day with holy 
joy. You find the Hebrew songs embodying prayers 
which have passed into the devotions of the Chris- 
tian church. It has been well said that there is a light 
on the mountains of Judea which never shone on 
Olympus and Parnassus. There rayed out from the 
hill of Zion a glory that never was seen on the seven 
hills of Rome. Honored Hebrews, light-bearers, 
harbingers of Jesus the Christ ! We thank you for 
the noble part performed by you in building a high- 
way through the ages to the cradle in Bethlehem ! 

The Contribution of the Greeks. 

The Greeks also had their part to perform. The 
heathenism of the Greeks has been rightly called the 
religion of beauty ; but it was sadly marred by gross 
vices. Their gods were men in whom were seen the 
vices as well as the virtues of the Greeks themselves. 
You cannot expect a people to be better than their 
gods. If the gods are bad, the people cannot be 
good. That is a statement to which assuredly no 
reasonable objection can be made. Now the gods 
of the Greeks were themselves subject to iron fate. 
They were reproached by one another with folly and 
with crimes. They were involved in perpetual 
quarrels and in bitter jealousies. They were full of 
wrath, envy, hatred, and lust. They charged one 



46 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

another with cruelty, with perjury, with lying, and 
with gross impurity. Still this heathenism was 
groping in the darkness after the " Unknown God." 
Beyond all this polytheism there was a back- 
ground of monotheism. All polytheism has grown 
out of a primitive monotheistic stock. Thus mono- 
theism preserved the memory of a golden age and 
of a fall. Many of the traditions of Greek myth- 
ology were echoes of a purer primal religion. 
Mythological fancies of the mingling of gods with 
men were unconscious prophecies of the incarnation 
of Jesus Christ. Every true classical student will see 
in these mythologies prophecies of Jesus, vague, 
misty, mysterious, but still real prophecies of the 
incarnation of the Christ. 

Men have never been able to blot out entirely the 
image of God from their souls. Socrates, Plato, and 
Aristotle were struggling after God. They did not 
fully know the fact, but they were still feeling after 
him. Christ was even then the light that lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world. The old- 
fashioned missionaries to heathen peoples erred in 
denouncing all forms of heathenism without showing 
how Christianity is the reality after which the 
heathen were unconsciously striving. These good 
missionaries made a great mistake. The broad- 
minded, the philosophical missionary follows the ex- 
ample of the Apostle Paul on Mars Hill. He sees an 
altar " to the unknown God." He virtually says to 
the people, " I observe that in all things you are 



HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 47 

very religious. I have come to tell you about the 
Unknown God to whom you have built this altar." 
If I were speaking to Plato, to Socrates, to Aris- 
totle, I should say : " You are walking in light that 
comes from the Cross. You do not know it, but 
it is light from Jesus Christ, for he is the true light 
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 
Come into fuller light. Let me take you by the 
hand and lead you to the feet of Jesus Christ the 
Unknown God whom vaguely, ignorantly, and yet 
honestly you are seeking." If I were to meet 
Buddha and Confucius and Zoroaster, I would give 
to each of them a similar message. Without know- 
ing it they were feeling after God; all the light of 
Buddha came from Christ; all the glory of Zoro- 
aster is the reflection from the uplifted face of God; 
and all the wisdom of Confucius is the gift of Jesus 
Christ. 

The chief characteristic of the Greek was the per- 
fection of intellect in art, in poetry, in literature, in 
philosophy. The Greek was restless in his activity, 
hence he became a great athlete and a great colon- 
izer. The Greek early supplanted the Phoenician 
by dotting with his civilization all the islands of the 
Mediterranean, and by dotting with that civilization 
the shores of the Mediterranean itself. The Greek 
planted his arts, sciences, philosophy, and literature 
in Asia Minor, and Italy. Then Alexander carried 
the Greek language and civilization from Alexandria 
to India. The Greek was thus a student of naviga- 



48 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

tion and of geography. The Tigris and the Eu- 
phrates practically became Greek rivers. The city 
of Miletus became the mother of three hundred 
towns, colonizing the entire coast of the Black Sea. 
The Greek was like the Highlander in Scotland, 
fond of visiting all lands, but loving his own land 
with a love surpassing expression. In the age of 
Pericles Greek civilization had become the highest 
the world had ever seen. Such was the Greek. 
The result was that he spread his language — the 
richest, the most delicate, the most scientific lan- 
guage the world has ever known, over practically 
the civilized world. Jewish colonists of Babylon 
spoke Greek ; Greek formed the lingua franca in all 
the countries founded by these colonizers. It was not 
by accident that the New Testament was written in 
Greek. It was most important that there should be 
a language that should be the mold into which the 
new thought should be poured, a language so sci- 
entific and accurate as was the Greek. When 
Jesus says baptizo — to baptize, to immerse — he does 
not mean rantizo — to pour. He uses exact words in 
the most perfect language. It would have been 
impossible for the apostles and Christ to be more 
exact. There was never a language written by 
human hand or spoken by human lips so accurate as 
the Greek, and that was the language chosen as the 
medium for the New Testament revelation. In 
this fact we see clearly the wisdom of God. 

But what was the other side of the Greek people ? 



HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 49 

It must be admitted that the lowest of social con- 
ditions prevailed; that political integrity was lost; 
and that social purity was unknown. The phi- 
losophers were sophists. There were only two 
classes of women ; one was ignorant and reasonably 
virtuous, the other was educated and abominably 
vicious. Wherever the Greek civilization went its 
vices went. Antioch and Alexandria became worse 
than Athens and Corinth. Moral diseases were " an 
open sore " all over Greece. All Greece was crying 
out for help. All Greece was lifting up its hands for 
a Healer, for a Saviour, for Jesus Christ. 

The Roman Contribution. 

Rome had its part in preparing for the Advent. 
The Romans were called to carry out the idea of 
the State and of civil law. They united the nations 
of the world in a colossal empire. This empire 
stretched from Britain to the Euphrates, and from 
the deserts of Libya to the banks of the Rhine. 
They believed that they were called to rule the 
world. This was their slogan long before Virgil 
expressed the thought in poetic speech. God planted 
on the banks of the Tiber a power that stretched its 
mighty arm out over all the nations. The Romans 
were like the Russians of to-day — they believed that 
they were called of God to be the world's masters. 
That is the secret article in the creed of every de- 
vout Russian imperialist to-day. Russia believes 
that she is God's chosen nation to rule the world, 

D 



50 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

and that the day will come when all the nations shall 
lie prostrate at the feet of mighty Russia. This 
belief is partly the result of political ambition, but 
it is especially the result of religious faith. Give 
the Russian credit for his religious faith. He wants 
to see the whole world bow before the Cross, but 
only before the Cross as the Cross is held in Russia's 
cruel hand. The Romans called their city urbs 
aeterna, the eternal city. The Romans with wolf-like 
rapacity became, as Tacitus, their first great his- 
torian, says, " the insatiable robbers of the world/' 
But the worship of their gods became absurd super- 
stition. Morality and chastity sank into vice and de- 
bauchery. The lower class had no higher ambition 
than " bread and the circus." The huge empire of 
Tiberius and Nero was slowly and surely crumbling 
to its final dissolution. It was a nation of tyrants on 
the one side, and of slaves on the other. Their vast 
empire broke down. This must be admitted ; indeed 
it is to be affirmed. The Roman nation united the 
North and South and East and West by the bonds of 
a common language and culture, by common laws, 
and by common customs. Men of every nation 
flowed to Rome. The Romans were, as has been 
often said, the great road-makers of the world. 
Roman roads were the world's great arteries radi- 
ating from the eternal city. Rome mastered the 
world by her great roads. Over these roads were 
to ride in triumph great conquerors and rulers; 
but over these roads, in the providence of God, 



HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 5 1 

went the apostles as the ambassadors of the Cross 
of Christ. Rome built the roads for her soldiers and 
emperors; God consecrated the roads for the 
messengers of the Cross. 

Rome was broken in heart. Her emperors were 
deified, her people were enslaved. Greece was call- 
ing out for a Healer, Rome calling out for a Con- 
soler, and both Greece and Rome were waiting for 
the fulness of the time for the birth of Jesus the 
Christ, fulfilling the words of my text : " But when 
the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth 
his Son." There was also an important element of 
preparation caused by the mingling of the Hebrews 
with the Greeks and the Romans by the dispersion 
of the Hebrews and by the adoption on the part of 
the Hebrews of many of the characteristics of the 
peoples among whom they sojourned. Thus there 
was a leavening of the Jewish nation because of 
the influence of their heathen neighbors, while 
the Jews in turn greatly afifected those heathen 
neighbors. 

Permit me therefore to sum up my thought. 
Each of these lines was necessary. Without the 
Hebrew, Christianity could not have arisen. With- 
out the influence of the Greek and the Roman, 
Christianity would have been a provincial faith, a 
sect of Judaism, instead of becoming the religion 
of the world. All these lines of preparation centered 
in Judea. There was the home of the Hebrew re- 
ligion, of Greek civilization, and of Roman power. 



52 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

The coins of the Jews bore the superscription of the 
Caesars. The inscription on the cross was in He- 
brew, Greek, and Latin. The cross stood at the 
confluence of these three streams of civilization. 
The Greek literature and the universal empire of the 
Romans, next to Judaism, were the chief agents in 
preparing the world for Christ. They laid the 
natural foundation for the supernatural structure of 
the celestial kingdom. The Greeks were vastly more 
important than the numberless hosts of the Asiatic 
empire. The Greeks, as we have seen, developed 
science and art. Alexander the Great, although a 
Macedonian by birth, was the truest Greek of his 
age. Napoleon was not a Frenchman ; he was an Ital- 
ian, but the Italian-Frenchman became the greatest 
Frenchman of his time. Alexander conceived the 
idea of making Babylon the seat of a Greek empire 
of the world. His empire with his death fell to 
pieces and with the quarrels of his generals his 
power was dissipated. But the Greeks carried their 
language over the civilized world. New channels of 
communication were open everywhere. The He- 
brew gave the direct and positive preparation; the 
Greek and the Roman, the indirect and negative 
preparation for the Advent; and the coming of 
Christ was thus the fulfilment of the highest dreams 
of Hebrew, Greek, and Roman. 

The whole world repeats that experience. Every 
individual lives over again the life of these three 
nations. Here are men who are striving to find 



HISTORY AND THE ADVENT 53 

Christ by their own self-righteousness. They fail. 
Here are men who are striving to find Christ by art 
and culture. They fail. Here are men who are 
striving to find Christ by law, by civilization, by 
organization. They fail. Then comes the Christ. 
Thus the fulness of the time was come. There is 
a fulness in all God's plans. Christ could not 
fittingly have come sooner; neither could be fit- 
tingly have longer postponed his coming. The hour 
struck: it was the moment of eternal purpose. 
Peace reigned. 

The birth of Christ gave vitality to a dying 
Judaism, gave new hope to a sin-sick Greece, and 
new and diviner ambitions to world-encircling 
Rome. That birth brought heaven to earth and 
gave a deeper meaning to the blessed name Im- 
manuel, " God with us." 

Is there room for Christ to-day in your brain, 
room for him in your heart, room for him in your 
home, room for him in your office, room for him in 
your entire life ? Bow at his feet and receive him as 
your Prophet, Priest, and King ! 



IV 
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 

Text: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
good-will toward men " ; or, as in the New version, " Glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in 
whom he is well pleased/' — Luke 2 : 14. 

IN Norway, especially in the vicinity of the North 
Cape, when the long nght of winter is nearing 
its close, many of the people dressed in holiday attire 
stand on the tops of mountains awaiting the first 
glimpse of the returning sun. The moment it is seen, 
embracing one another, they exclaim : " Behold the 
sun ! " From mountain-top to mountain-top the cry 
goes over these parts of the country : " Behold the 
sun ! Behold the sun ! " Jesus Christ is the Sun 
of Righteousness. Noble hearts and longing souls 
who waited for the " Consolation of Israel," greeted 
his advent with songs of joy. We thus have the 
" Benedictus " of Zacharias, the " Magnificat " of 
Mary, the " Nunc Dimittis " of Simeon, and the 
" Gloria in Excelsis " of the angels. The very air was 
tremulous with song when Christ was born. These 
devout souls were waiting for the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, who was rising with healing in his wings. 

Beautiful is the title which Zacharias gives to the 
Christ — the Day-spring. The Apostle Peter called 
54 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 55 

him the Day-star, and the Apostle John writes of 
him as the Bright and Morning star. The word 
day-spring is literally the rising, as of the sun, the 
dawn of a new and heavenly day. The Magi said : 
" We have seen his star in the East." Most ap- 
propriate is the word day-spring in this connection. 
In Palestine there is no twilight, no gloaming. The 
sun suddenly drops below the horizon in the even- 
ing and the darkness almost immediately falls ; and 
in the morning the sun rises with equal suddenness 
and the earth is flooded with its supernal splendor. 
The birth of Christ was the coming of the day- 
spring, the rising of the Sun of Righteousness upon 
a world long in darkness and sorrow. 

The Angelic Choir. 

Amid the many voices that greeted the advent of 
the Christ were the songs of celestial choirs. Once 
in Scripture God is represented as singing. The 
passage in which this representation is given is most 
instructive and beautiful. The Lord God is repre- 
sented as rejoicing over his people with joy, as 
resting in his love, and as expressing that joy and 
love with singing. This is a marvelous description 
of God. Think what the church would give for the 
words and score of that divine song ! Next to that 
desire is the longing to know the score of the anthem 
chanted by the celestial choir when Christ was born. 
My text gives us the substance of the wonderful 
anthem which the angels sang. Heaven and earth 



56 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

seemed to join hands and to touch hearts on that 
glorious occasion. 

These inhabitants of heaven seemed to be ever 
near the earth while Christ sojourned among men. 
They ministered to him while in the wilderness of 
temptation ; they strengthened him in the agony of 
Gethsemane; they sat at the head and the foot of 
the place where he lay in the sepulcher, and it was 
most fitting that they should announce his advent 
with songs of celestial joy. 

The eyes of the shepherds might well have been 
dazzled by the outstreaming glory of the Lord 
which wrapped them about as a mantle of light. 
The sublime solo soon gave place to the triumphant 
chorus. It seemed as if the heavens were filled 
with attendant angels who only awaited the signal 
to burst forth in heavenly music. In the olden time 
when the sacrifice was laid on the altar the blast of 
silver trumpets sounded out clear and strong; so 
when he came, who was the true Sacrifice, and when 
the angel soloist had ended his song a multitude of 
the heavenly host chanted again the blessed message 
of the first herald-angel. This anthem in its heaven- 
ward aspects was " glory," and in its earthward 
significance it was " peace." 

It has sometimes been said that this was the first, 
as it was the last time that angelic voices were heard 
by mortal ears. But strictly speaking this is the 
second time that voices from heaven fell upon 
human ears. In Isaiah's rapt vision heaven was 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 57 

opened and the glory of the Lord was seen. Then 
the trembling posts of the temple almost broke 
down as the glory of Jehovah filled the courts. The 
same glory now floods the plains of Bethlehem. 
Then an angelic hymn announced the coming of the 
kingdom ; now another angelic hymn proclaims that 
the heavenly King has come. As has been well said 
by Edersheim, " Then it had been the Tris-Haggion 
of prophetic anticipation; now that of evangelic 
fulfilment." 

Heaven's Gala Days. 

Nothing could be more fitting than that the angels 
who stood around the throne of the heavenly King 
should follow him to the earth when he came on his 
message of mercy. The angels have had two gala 
days in their unique and glorious experience: the 
first was when the foundations of creation were laid 
with shouts of joy, the sons of God singing to- 
gether ; the second was when the foundations of the 
new heaven and the new earth were laid, the angels 
chanting the event with loftier songs than had ever 
before been heard, even in heaven's glorious temple. 
The very air seemed sacred since it bore so sweet a 
message from heaven ; the earth itself seems conse- 
crated since the coming of its Lord and Creator. 
We may well believe that angels from a sinless 
heaven never performed a more welcome service 
than when they made the plains of Bethlehem echo 
with their songs of joy when the Christ was born. 



58 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Angels are presented to us as bending reverently 
forward and gazing intently, as if listening earnestly 
to the mysteries of God concerning the coming of 
Christ. Possessed by a holy curiosity, they are try- 
ing to discover the secrets of human redemption. It 
was, therefore, fitting that these lofty intelligences, 
at the supreme moment of God's sublimest disclosure 
of eternal love, should break forth into matchless 
music over the cradle of the infant Redeemer. 
Poetry and music have often exhausted themselves 
in preparing and chanting cradle songs. Mothers 
have found their highest joy in crooning these songs 
over mere earthly cradles and human babes. It was 
fitting, therefore, that the divine-human Babe should 
have an angel choir to chant his cradle song, 
and it was further fitting that that song should be 
an anthem radiant with glory to God and beautiful 
with peace toward men. 

The Angelic Doxology. 

This sublime anthem recognizes God as the 
author of human salvation. The gift of the Messiah 
redounds to the praise of God. All his works mani- 
fest his glory, but the gift of his Son for the re- 
demption of man calls for praise to God in the 
highest places and in the loftiest strains. The ad- 
vent of Christ was a new manifestation of God's 
eternal love to sinful men. It is no wonder, there- 
fore, that this song, " Gloria in Excelsis," should 
have been so honored in the service of the church 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 59 

for so many generations. A single expression em- 
ployed in this song, and coming to us along the ages, 
through the Latin Vulgate version has given us the 
title by which the angelic song is known. Probably 
the chant, as we now have it, originated in the Greek 
Church about the year 300. It is one of the noblest 
compositions the church has ever produced. It fit- 
tingly prolongs the echoes of the celestial choir 
which announced the birth of the Messiah King. 

The birth of Christ inagurated a new era in 
human history; it was really the birth of a new 
race. The incarnation is the basal fact in Chris- 
tianity. The evangelist John distinctly affirms that 
the Word was God, and also that the Word became 
flesh. The incarnation of Christ was the entrance 
of Deity into humanity in a fuller and diviner sense 
than ever before. The real meaning of the incarna- 
tion is the actual entrance of God into humanity by 
a supernatural birth. To deny the supernatural 
birth is to deny the real significance of the incar- 
nation itself. 

Progressive Revelations. 

God made himself known in creation, in provi- 
dence, and in revelation ; but the incarnation was the 
sublimest manifestation of God the world had ever 
before known. God's revelation of himself is ever- 
more progressive; he reveals himself as men are 
able to understand, and even to endure, the revela- 
tion. The glory of the Lord that shone about the 



60 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

shepherds was the miraculous effulgence which the 
rabbins called the Shechinah. This miraculous light 
was a lambent flame in the bush which burned but 
was not consumed ; it went before Israel in a pillar 
of cloud by day and of fire by night ; it flooded the 
temple of Solomon with an unendurable brightness ; 
it was the glory which the shepherds saw at Bethle- 
hem; it was the radiant cloud which enfolded the 
ascending Lord, and it will be the canopy over the 
great white throne on which he will sit to judge 
the world. Well might this effulgent brightness 
appear in glad homage to the incarnation. There 
has thus been in the glory of the Shechinah ever 
an increasing light, for Christ is the true pillar of 
cloud to guide his church through the world to her 
triumph and glory in heaven. 

There has ever been a progressive revelation of 
Christ in his person. He was the Shiloh in Genesis ; 
the I Am in Exodus, and the Star and Scepter in 
Numbers. In Deuteronomy he is our Rock; in 
Joshua he is the Captain of the Lord's Host, and in 
Job he is the Redeemer. In Isaiah he is the Won- 
derful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
Father, and the Prince of Peace. In Jeremiah he is 
the Lord Our Righteousness; in Daniel he is the 
Messiah; in Zechariah he is the Branch, and in 
Haggai he is the Desire of All Nations. In Malachi 
he is the Messenger of the Covenant and the Sun 
of Righteousness. 

There is a progression also in his incarnations. It 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 6l 

was he who appeared to Moses in the burning bush ; 
it was he who appeared to Joshua as the captain 
of the Lord's host; it was he who appeared to 
Gideon as he was threshing corn, and who saluted 
him with the words, " The Lord is with thee, thou 
mighty man of valor." There were thus many tem- 
porary incarnations before the one great incarnation 
in the manger-cradle at Bethlehem. 

The incarnation of Deity was dimly hinted in 
many legends in heathen mythology. Parts of these 
mythologies were unconscious prophecies of great 
Christian truths. Heathenism was feeling after God 
if haply it might find him. Philosophy was seeking 
after Deity, but in its loftiest reach it only built an 
altar to " the unknown God." The human mind 
must have God in human form. God as the un- 
created and the invisible, and not also as the in- 
carnate, must remain incomprehensible, except to a 
few devout worshipers. But Deity incarnate, en- 
fleshed, embodied in human form, dwelling among 
men, rejoicing in their joy, weeping with their 
sorrow, cradled with their babes — Deity thus united 
to humanity men can understand, admire, trust, and 
adore. The incarnation of Deity is thus an absolute 
necessity of our poor human nature. To worship 
God as Father, and Christ as Brother, we must see 
the divine in human form. The greatest of all 
marvels is that Christ should come from the bosom 
of the Father to the cradle in Bethlehem. 

The incarnation is the sublimest revelation of 



62 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

eternal love. In his marvelous description of the 
mind of Christ in the second chapter of Philippians, 
the Apostle Paul represents Christ as not grasping 
and holding his conscious equality with God, but as 
emptying himself and taking the form of a servant. 
This was the first great step in the downward 
plunge. After the incarnation, Gethsemane with its 
cup, and Calvary with its cross were inevitable. 
God's eternal, limitless, and unspeakable love gave 
the world its crowning manifestation when his only 
begotten and well-beloved Son became the child of 
Mary, and thus tented in human flesh. The human 
soul constantly cries out with Philip, " Show us the 
Father." We must see God in human form in 
order that the longing of our hearts and the logical 
demands of our minds may be satisfied. Sitting at 
the feet of Jesus his words to Philip fall upon our 
ears and hearts as God's sweetest benediction, " He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father. ,, 

A Praiseful Ascription. 

It ought to be remembered that this angelic dox- 
ology, " Glory to God in the highest," is not a 
prayer, but an ascription of praise. The angels did 
not pray " Glory be to God," but the angels joyfully 
exclaimed " Glory is to God." This was no time to 
be praying to God to manifest his glory when the 
earth was radiant with the sublimest manifestation 
of that glory which it had ever known. It was a 
time when even blind men might see and deaf men 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 63 

might hear. There is a blessed connection between 
the three stanzas of this divine anthem; there is a 
close relation between peace on earth, good-will to 
men on the one side and the highest glory to God 
on the other side. The angels are declaring that 
the rebellious race of man is to be subdued ; that this 
belligerent world is not forever to flaunt its defianti 
flag against heaven's King. We have here a sweet* 
implication, if not a direct assurance, that lost men 
shall be redeemed, manifold sin be controlled, and 
that Satan shall be destroyed by the personal Christ. 
Thus the anthem may well fill heaven's lofty dome 
with its doxology, " Glory to God in the highest." 

If we follow the Revised version the dominant 
thought of the angelic host is that peace will come 
to men of good will. This may mean to men of 
good will toward one another, or toward God, or 
with whom God is well pleased. It is difficult to 
decide which is the true reading. Our common 
reading, moreover, is greatly to be preferred. It 
gives the more simple and natural meaning of the 
word translated, " good will," and it is very much 
more in harmony with the doxology found in the 
first part of the verse. This is a sweet and heavenly 
benediction. The presence of God embodied in 
human flesh was designed to produce peace between 
men and their fellow-men; between the opposing 
elements in men's own hearts and between men and 
God. Christ is the Prince of Peace. God was 
now in Christ reconciling the world to himself. 



64 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

When men are at peace with God they will be at 
peace with one another. It is a striking fact that 
when Jesus was born the world experienced a pro- 
found peace. The sound of war was not heard 
throughout the boundaries of Rome's mighty em- 
pire. Beautifully has Milton in his " Ode to the 
Nativity " said : 

Nor war, or battle's sound 

Was heard the world around. 
The idle spear and shield were high up hung, 

The hooked chariot stood 

Unstained with hostile blood, 
The trumpet spake not to the armed throng, 
And kings sat still with awful eye, 
As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord 
was by. 

By order of the Emperor Augustus the gates of 
the temple of Janus were closed for only the third 
time in seven centuries. A bright prospect was 
opening for the human race. Long delayed is the 
fulfilment of the prophecy that swords shall become 
plowshares and spears pruning-hooks. But the 
day will surely come when this blessed result shall 
be secured. 

Two nations are now engaged in awful war 
(1905), and the effusion of blood makes the heart 
sick and the spirit faint. But war's horrors are 
hastening the days of universal peace. The day 
will assuredly come when all international difficul- 
ties will be settled by international arbitration. The 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 65 

last few months have witnessed the signing of a 
greater number of treaties of arbitration than were 
ever before made in as many years. America has 
the honor of leading the nations in this blessed mis- 
sion of peace and good will toward all men. Presi- 
dents McKinley and Roosevelt have done more to 
secure this result than was done by all preceding 
presidents of the United States. Secretary Hay, 
the foremost diplomatist in the world, beautifully 
blended American patriotism with the teaching of 
the Golden Rule, in negotiating treaties and in pre- 
serving peace with many nations. He lifted 
diplomacy to a higher level than it ever before 
reached in the history of the race; he more nearly 
realized the meaning of this celestial anthem in 
human affairs than was ever before known since the 
birth of the Prince of Peace. 

We need still higher standards of diplomacy, 
patriotism, heroism, and religion. We are pressing 
toward the realization of these higher standards. 
Already the eastern sky is radiant with the crimson 
and gold of at least one element of millennial bless- 
ing-— the preservation of peace, the abolition of war, 
and the universality of arbitration. 

Christ and True Greatness. 

By the manner in which he entered into the world 
Christ dignified the estate of childhood. He hal- 
lowed the cradles of the world. He made babyhood 
beautiful and divine. As he hallowed the grave by 



66 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

making it his temporary resting-place, so he has 
made the cradle radiant by having lain therein. He 
has also glorified motherhood throughout the world. 
He has put a crown of honor on every mother's 
brow. He has also glorified poverty. He was the 
only child ever born into this world who had his 
choice as to how he should come. He might have 
come, as did the first Adam, a full-grown man; 
he chose to come a helpless babe. He might have 
come in all the pomp and pageantry of earthly kings ; 
he chose to come in lowly poverty. 

His cradle teaches us also wherein consists true 
greatness. When he lay in that cradle mighty 
Caesar was on his throne. Where now are Caesar 
and his throne ? At Caesar's name nations trembled ; 
but that name and power and throne have perished. 
The empire of Jesus endures — it is the empire of 
undying love, and it will never perish. His name 
shall endure longer than the sun. All kings shall 
fall down and serve him. The empire of love 
triumphs over the empire of power. 

O men and women, submit now to the scepter of 
his love ; kneel at his cradle and give him the gold, 
the frankincense, and the myrrh of sincere devotion. 
Then rise to have peace in your heart, in your home, 
and in the social circles in which you move. At 
this glad Christmastide let us settle all private and 
personal grudges and hates ; let us forgive and for- 
get ; let us restore all sad estrangements ; let us pray 
for peace in our own hearts and throughout the 



GLORIA IN EXCELSIS 67 

world. O blessed Child of the Manger and Ancient 
of Days ; O Son of Mary and Son of God, be born 
in our hearts to-day. Then shall we with a new ex- 
perience and with an unspeakable joy join our voices 
with those of the celestial choir in chanting the 
glorious anthem : " Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace, good will toward men." 



THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD 

Text: And the Word was made Hesh, and dwelt among 
us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only 
begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. — John 
i : 14. 

WE celebrate to-day the birth festival of our 
Lord. The incarnation of Christ is the cen- 
tral thought in the history of this world. It is the 
event around which all other events revolve in 
smaller or larger circles. All the great facts of his- 
tory previous to his coming had reference to his ad- 
vent ; all the events since look back to that advent as 
the beginning of a new era. All lines of previous 
history converged to his manger and his cross; all 
lines since have radiated from these two epochal 
facts. His birth was the beginning not only of a 
new era, but of a new race ; the observance of that 
birth is still the jubilee of the race. This festival 
still continues to be the most joyous celebration of 
the church; it makes the joy of childhood more 
joyous and it lightens the burdens of age and sorrow 
with its tender memories and its triumphant prophe- 
cies. In the chill of mid-winter in northern climes 
it kindles a fire of hope and joy in every heart and 
in every home. It is prophetic of the golden age 
68 



THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD 69 

when Christ shall come again; when evil shall be 
overthrown, and when the song of a redeemed hu- 
manity shall sweep over the universe as the song of 
celestial choirs echoed over the plains of Bethlehem. 
By the gifts which characterize this season we com- 
memorate God's great gift — the unspeakable gift of 
his Son to a world lost in sin and wandering in 
darkness. No one can rightly estimate the blessings 
which flow every year to all classes and conditions 
of men from the tender memories and gentle char- 
ities called forth by the remembrance of the Holy 
Child Jesus. 

There is no doubt but that the selection of the 
twenty-fifth of December was largely governed by 
the existence of heathen festivals held about that 
season of the year. This date was not generally 
accepted until the fourth century. The Christmas 
observance was a transfiguration of such heathen 
festivals as Saturnalia, Juvenalia, Sigillaria, and 
Brumalia. These were observed in the month of 
December to commemorate " the golden age of 
universal freedom and equality in honor of the 
unconquered sun/' They were great holidays for 
children, for the poor, and for slaves. Some Chris- 
tians in the third century observed the twentieth of 
May and others the twentieth of April, and still 
others kept the sixth of January as the date of 
Christ's birth and baptism. It seems certain that 
God did not intend that we should know definitely 
the day, the month, or even the year of our Lord's 



ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



birth. Had it been important that we should know, 
doubtless the facts would have been revealed. 

The description of the scene by Milton in his 
immortal " Ode to the Nativity," 

It was the winter wild 

While the heaven-born child 

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies, 

befits an English or American December rather than 
the one in Palestine, or anywhere in the Orient. 

Perhaps there is a deep spiritual significance in 
the transformation of these heathen festivals. There 
was in them, notwithstanding their sensual abuses, 
what has been called an unconscious prophecy of 
Christian truth; there was a sweet significance in 
the symbolic reference to the turning of the sun 
after the twenty-fifth of December and his beginning 
of a new career, as illustrative of the birth of 
Christ as the Sun of Righteousness and the Light of 
the World. Some writers trace the institution of 
this festival to the Emperor Commodus at the close 
of the second century; there are even proofs of its 
observance in the reign of Diocletian 284-305, who 
while keeping court at Nicomedia, closed the doors 
of a church in which Christians were celebrating 
the birthday of their Lord, set the building on fire, 
and caused all the worshipers to perish in the 
flames. But doubt must attach to this date, except 
as a local and not a general observance of the 
Christian festival. 



THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD 7 1 

A Suggestive Title — "The Word/' 

The title here given to our Lord is worthy of 
the most careful consideration. He is known in the 
New Testament by a great variety of titles, the 
number being over one hundred. These titles are 
not accidental; each one voices a great truth; each 
one brings out some new element of his character, 
or some interesting fact in his prophetic and actual 
history. Volumes might be written on the beauty, 
appropriateness, and significance of these divinely 
given names. Other names are yet to be given to 
our divine Redeemer, as we are clearly taught in the 
book of Revelation. There are to be still more 
gracious revelations of the character and history of 
our Lord when his people are to be admitted to his 
immediate presence. The title here given is pro- 
foundly significant — the Word. It occurs in the 
proof-text of our Lord's divinity. It carries us at 
once beyond time and into eternity. Well has the 
Apostle John been represented in symbol as astride 
the eagle, for while other evangelists begin the 
history of Christ with Abraham or Adam, he sweeps 
back beyond time and created beings to the very 
bosom of the eternal God. We are not surprised 
that this passage of Scripture has been violently 
attacked; but its teaching is too plain to be mis- 
understood, and its testimony to the essential 
divinity of the Lord too emphatic to be discredited. 

Many ancient heathen philosophers spoke of God 



J2 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

as existing in himself, and also of his revealing 
himself in his words and in his works. The idea 
of the incarnation as a revelation and enfleshment of 
the Deity was not unfamiliar to the minds of heathen 
philosophers. Their conceptions in this regard were 
anticipations and prophecies of the central fact of 
divinity and humanity revealed in the birth of Je- 
sus Christ. The possibility of the incarnation of the 
Deity was a favorite theory of the Platonic school ; 
the idea of God as a logos, word, or as a nous, a 
divine intelligence, was a familiar thought with the 
disciples of that school, and to this logos or nous the 
act of creation was ascribed. Some philosophers 
even called this logos or nous a second God. We 
know also that this twofold aspect of God found 
place in some of the Jewish writings which were 
under the influence of the neo-Platonic philosophy. 
As the spoken word represents our thought, so 
Jesus Christ represents the thought of God. God 
had great thoughts of love toward the wayward 
sons of men. These thoughts must find some more 
expressive form of revelation than creation. Crea- 
tion revealed God's hand; but the incarnation re- 
veals God's heart. Christ was the embodiment of 
God's thought of love. Christ was God's name; 
Christ was God. Only thus could God make himself 
known to men so that they could see him, handle 
him, and under a visible form give him their affec- 
tion and adoration. God the Father is a spirit and 
cannot be visibly represented to us, except in the 



THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD 73 

person of his Son and our Lord Jesus Christ. It 
thus came to pass that Christ could say unto Philip, 
" He that hath seen me hath seen the Father/' 
We rejoice in this title of Jesus Christ — the Word. 
The thought of love in the bosom of the Father 
never found such full, sweet, and fatherly expression 
as when it became the Word. Our thoughts of life 
become tenderer and stronger when they are ex- 
pressed. May we not reverentially assume to affirm 
that even God's thoughts of everlasting love toward 
the children of men, so long unspoken and un- 
speakable in all their fulness, became stronger and 
sweeter when they were voiced in the person of 
him, who was the eternal Word? Oh, sweet and 
blessed word of love! Oh, holy and divine Son, 
who is the embodiment of eternal love, Jesus Christ, 
the incarnate Word of God ! 

The Divine in the Human. 

The truth of the union of divinity with humanity 
is taught us with great fulness in the text when we 
read " was made flesh." The more literal translation 
is " became flesh." Its literal rendering suggests an 
important truth regarding the pre-existence of our 
Lord, and suggests the process of the incarnation. 
It is important that we should go to the very heart 
of the word that is here used, as it teaches a transi- 
tion from one state of existence to another. It is not 
the verb that is employed in the first verse — the 
mere verb of existence — and which there is properly 



74 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

translated " was/' but here it is the verb meaning 
" to become. " Of course we understand that the 
word flesh is here a figurative expression denoting 
Christ's human nature in contradistinction to the 
pre-existent and divine Logos. It is of God as the 
divine Logos that the incarnation is affirmed. He 
is not changed simply into a man, for we are told in 
other Scripture that " in him dwelleth all the fulness 
of the Godhead bodily. " There was in the incarna- 
tion a mysterious union of divinity with humanity; 
the incarnate Word was the God-man, having two 
natures mysteriously united in one personality. We 
are carried at once back to the first chapter of John 
and the first verse which affirms the divinity of 
Christ, and all between that verse and the next might 
be regarded as parenthetical. Here the humanity of 
the Lord is as emphatically declared as there his 
divinity is emphasized. 

We have therefore here clearly taught the stu- 
pendous truth of the enfleshment of the eternal 
Word. This truth is implied in the tenth verse of 
this chapter ; but in the text it is reaffirmed, and we 
are plainly told that he took a human body. We 
mean by the incarnation that the Lord Jesus became 
a real man. The incarnation thus implied his pre- 
vious existence. Both these implications are in 
harmony with Heb. 2 : 14 where we have the words, 
" As the children are partakers of flesh and blood 
he also himself likewise took part of the same." 
There are other passages, such as Phil. 2 : 6; 2 



THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD 75 

Cor. 8 : 9, and still other passages teaching the same 
truth. There is here such a union of the divine and 
the human that the incarnate God is truly God and 
truly man united in one glorious personality. 

This doctrine was not unknown, as we have 
already seen, among heathen nations in that early 
day; it is not unknown among heathen nations in 
our day. The Hindus teach that there have been 
several incarnations of the Deity for the salvation 
of the lost race. In the writings of Chinese phil- 
osophers and theologians, as well as in those of 
Zoroaster, there are suggestions, anticipations, and 
prophecies of this sublime truth of Christianity. The 
ancient Greeks and Romans had the idea with great 
fulness of detail, although with ridiculous associa- 
tions of Deity and humanity. Homer and Virgil 
constantly described the intimate relations of gods 
in converse with men. But all these dim and vague 
beliefs of uninspired writers come forth in sym- 
metry, beauty, and glory in the person of Jesus 
Christ, and in the revelations of the New Testa- 
ment. The humanity of our Lord is a doctrine 
which answers the deepest longings and realizes 
the highest hopes of humanity. The broken heart of 
our race cries out for God. We must exalt this 
doctrine of the incarnation, the doctrine of the per- 
fect humanity of our Lord. On the side of his hu- 
manity he comes most tenderly near our sorrowing 
hearts. He shared our woes, he mingled his tears 
with those who wept, and he rejoiced with those 



y6 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

who rejoiced. We need a Saviour so near us that 
he can sympathize with all our griefs; we need a 
Saviour so far above us that he can grant us his 
assistance and call forth our adoration. We need a 
Saviour who is both human and divine ; we need, in 
a word, such a Saviour as we have in our glorious 
Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. In him the high- 
est philosophy and the lowliest faith sweetly blend; 
in him the dreams of the ages and the yearnings of 
all hearts find their full realization. To-day we take 
up the song of the angels and chant once more with 
glad hearts and tuneful voices, " Glory to God in 
the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward 
men." To-day we stand over the cradle where lies 
the infant Jesus; to-day childhood is honored, 
motherhood is glorified, poverty is beautified, and 
humanity is divinized. Oh, blessed Child of the 
manger and still Ancient of days ! Oh, blessed Son 
of Mary and still Son of God! At thy feet with 
wondering shepherds and adoring Magi we bow in 
lowliest reverence ; we give thee the homage of our 
hearts; on thy brow we place the crown of human 
divinity and of divine humanity- 

Tabernacling Among Us. 

There are many evidences of the reality of the 
incarnation. One evidence was that Jesus Christ 
dwelt among the apostles and others in daily fellow- 
ship. He ate, drank, and slept in close associa- 
tion with his disciples. He was with them in 



THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD 7J 

familiar intercourse for thirty years or more. They 
saw him for a time daily in varied circumstances 
and conditions. It was quite impossible that they 
could have been deceived as to the reality of his 
humanity. As a result, the Apostle John, writing 
years after the incarnation, crucifixion, and ascen- 
sion, says : " That which was from the beginning, 
which we have heard, which we have seen with our 
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands 
have handled of the Word of life." At the time he 
wrote his Epistle there were reasons why he empha- 
sized the humanity of his Lord. It was, therefore, 
incumbent upon the apostle in writing this Epistle 
that he should give no uncertain sound regarding so 
precious and essential a doctrine. He affirms here 
as the result of long familiarity what is taught so 
conclusively and sublimely in his Epistle. He was 
with Christ during all of his ministry; he has re- 
corded more of the Lord's sayings than either of 
the other evangelists. He assures us here that he 
speaks as the result of long and close familiarity 
with God who was the Word and became flesh. He 
had learned how to confirm his faith in the humanity 
and divinity of his Lord. He had the testimony of 
his own eyes, of his own hands, and of all his senses. 
There could not have been in his case any optical 
illusion. He had the opportunity of the most careful 
and personal scrutiny. He was thus able effectually 
to oppose the teachings of the Docetse that Christ was 
a man only in appearance and not in reality. 



?8 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

It is interesting to note the meaning of the word 
translated in our version " dwelt " ; it is literally 
sojourned, tabernacled, or tented among them. The 
word beautifully illustrates the fact that heaven was 
Christ's proper and permanent dwelling-place, and 
that this earth was only his temporary abode for the 
accomplishment of a special mission. The Son of 
God honored the world with frequent temporary 
incarnations before becoming the child of Mary in 
the manger at Bethlehem. The Jehovah of the Old 
Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. In 
the grand consummation, the highest glory of the re- 
deemed church will be that " The tabernacle of God 
is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they 
shall be his people, and God himself shall be with 
them, and be their God" (Rev. 21 : 3). 

His Glory Manifested. 

The Apostle John with the other disciples clearly 
beheld the glory of Jesus Christ. At the marriage 
in Cana of Galilee we are told of Christ that he 
" manifested forth his glory." His glory was often 
displayed also in his miracles and in his teachings; 
but its grandest display during his earthly sojourn 
was on the occasion of his transfiguration, and the 
Apostle John was one of the witnesses who beheld 
that manifestation. His glory was seen also in his 
crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension. The 
Apostle John could not forget these sublime displays 
of his inherent and divine splendor, glory, and 



THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD 79 

power. As the only Begotten of the Father he 
was full of grace and truth. This term is applied 
only to Jesus, and is applied no fewer than five times 
by the Apostle John. A true believer is a son by 
adoption; but Jesus Christ was the Son by inherit- 
ance. God grant that he may be enthroned in our 
hearts, that he may now be born in our souls as our 
Lord and Redeemer! 

The Lessons. 

The mystery of the birth of our Lord explains the 
mystery of his life. No stream can rise higher than 
its source, but a stream can rise as high as its source. 
The stream of his life swept through the world and 
rose above it, ascending higher and higher until it 
reached the very bosom of God. Never before, 
never since, was such a life lived. Only once did the 
plant of humanity blossom and bloom into a perfect 
flower. How can we explain the purity, nobility, 
and divinity of this life if we deny the divinity of its 
origin? As students of history and humanity we 
are bound to account for Jesus Christ. We can 
account for Caesar, Napoleon, Grant, and other great 
men. But we affirm, without fear of contradiction, 
that if we deny the divinity of Christ we cannot 
explain the humanity of Christ. From the exalta- 
tion and uniqueness of his humanity we are driven 
back to belief in his divinity. Only as we accept the 
mystery of the birth can we find the solution of the 
mystery of the life ; only as we admit the uniqueness 



80 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

of the cradle can we explain the unicity of the cross, 
the grave, and the crown. 

We learn also that our Lord came on a glorious 
mission; he came to seek and save that which was 
lost. His was the most sublime mission that the 
world has ever known. Man was lost and terribly 
lost ; Christ came gloriously to save the lost. There 
is none too low for the reach of his mighty and 
gentle hand; there is none too foul to be washed 
whiter than snow in his precious blood. His people 
must repeat his mission, going after the lost and 
telling them of him who is mighty to save. 

We learn also that we must make room for Jesus. 
There must be room for him to-day in your offices, 
your stores, your homes, your hearts. Oh, make 
room now for Jesus Christ. Have you hitherto shut 
him out; have you hitherto refused to listen when he 
has knocked at the door of your heart? He is to 
come again in power and great glory. Those who 
pierced him shall then mourn because of him ; they 
shall shrink from the splendor of his glory. Oh, let 
us receive him to-day, and then shall we sing with 
fuller meaning than the angels knew : " Glory to 
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will 
tow r ard men." 



VI 

THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER 

Texts: Matt, g : 18, 19, 23-26; Mark 5 ; 22-24, 35-43; 
Luke 8 : 41, 42, 49-56. 

THERE were three persons raised from the 
dead by our Lord. It will be profitable for us 
to study the narratives in their logical, which is 
possibly at the same time their chronological, order. 
The first case to which attention is called is that of 
the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue. We shall 
consider especially the narrative given by the evange- 
list Mark (Mark 5 : 22-24, 35-43). The account 
is also given in Matt. 9 : 18-26, and in Luke 8 : 41, 
42, 49-56. It is fitting however at the outset to say a 
few words about these three miracles as a whole. 
They have always been regarded, and rightly, as 
among the mightiest proofs of divine power on 
the part of our Lord. No power, except it come 
from God, can call back the spirit of the departed 
and animate again the dust of the dead. Spinoza, 
the great Jewish philosopher and skeptic of the 
seventeenth century, said that if it could be proved 
to him that Christ raised one from the dead all his 
objections to the divinity of Christ, and to the in- 
spiration of the Gospels would be at once removed. 
f 81 



82 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

In many of our Lord's miracles the line between 
the natural and the supernatural cannot be definitely 
traced. This is true in regard to the relation be- 
tween health and sickness ; one condition often lies 
very close to the other and it is difficult accurately to 
trace the transition from one to the other. The 
same remark will apply to the relation between 
storms and calms; they constantly alternate in the 
varying moods of seas and oceans. In the natural 
course of events tempests cease and are followed by 
calms. These results might be secured without any 
miraculous interposition on the part of Christ. At- 
tention has also been called to the fact that water 
transmutes itself by varying agencies into wine. 
The peasants in the south of France, during the 
proper season for the growth of the grape often 
say when the rain falls, " The wine is falling from 
the sky." The same law is illustrated in the multi- 
plication of the loaves which fed the thousands. In 
that case there was simply the acceleration of the 
process which is continually observed. Nature is 
all the while multiplying seeds of grain; nature 
is full of analogies illustrative of the same law. The 
single kernel deposited in the ground by the hus- 
bandman, in harmony with the same law, may be- 
come thirty, sixty, or a hundred kernels. But when 
we come to the miracles of raising the dead we 
enter an entirely different region of thought and of 
law ; we come into contact with an entirely different 
class of facts. We all know that the gulf between 



THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER 83 

life and death is so immense that apart from divine 
interposition it is impassable. Between existence 
and non-existence the opposition is not relative but 
absolute. It is therefore quite right to regard these 
miracles as unimpeachable witnesses to our Lord's 
complete divinity. 

Ease and Tenderness. 

It is fitting that we emphasize the ease with which 
Christ performed these miracles. There is not on 
his part any painful effort ; there is no delay ; there 
is no period of agonizing prayer. It is as easy for 
Christ to raise the dead as it is to utter a command 
concerning events of the most ordinary nature. One 
cannot but feel, as he stands before Christ, while he 
is calling back the dead to life, that he is beside the 
One who in the morning of creation said, " Let light 
be, and light was," The contrast between Elijah 
and Christ in this respect is very marked. When 
Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath he 
had to prostrate himself upon the dead form; he 
had to pray and pray again ; and he had to agonize 
in spirit before God. Thus, after delay and effort, 
life began to stir in the body of the dead child. Not 
otherwise was it when Elisha raised to life the son 
of the Shunammite woman. In his case also we 
have striking illustrations of the same experience. 
Here also there is delay; there is effort; there is 
trial, and there is a period of doubt as well as of 
difficulty. But not so with Christ. He speaks the 



84 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

word and immediately power goes forth and the 
dead are raised. 

Another characteristic of these miracles is the 
wonderful tenderness which Christ showed in the 
selection of the persons whom he raised from the 
dead. There are, as we have seen, three raisings 
from the dead. Who were the persons thus raised ? 
The first was the daughter of the ruler of the syna- 
gogue; she was the only daughter and possibly an 
only child. The hearts of her father and mother 
were bound up in the life of their only daughter, 
but beloved as she was she was dead. Her father, 
just previous to her death, hastened from the side 
of his pale, suffering, and dying child to tell the 
story to Jesus and secure his help. There are but 
few stories even on the pages of sacred history 
which so charm us with their beauty and thrill us 
with their interest as does this narrative. Its simple 
pathos melts its way into our hearts, and every 
parent interprets it in the light of parental love. 
This " one only daughter " in the home of Jairus 
was the sunshine of his heart. It is ever so that the 
objects of our joy are the possibilities of our pain. 
Sooner or later every great love may be changed into 
a correspondingly great sorrow. Great was the sor- 
row over the death of Lazarus. 

Puerile Criticisms. 

Just here it will be profitable to notice what 
critics call a contradiction in the narrative. Critics 



THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER 85 

of this character show marvelous ingenuity in the 
discovery of supposed contradictions among the 
evangelists. If objectors would spend half the 
energy in a careful study of the inspired record 
which they spend in discovering alleged discrep- 
ancies, they would find that their supposed contra- 
dictions are really sublime and divine harmonies. 
Because in this case the evangelist Matthew repre- 
sents the father as saying that his daughter is even 
now dead, and Mark that she " lieth at the point of 
death/' a striking English idiom used to set forth 
the fact expressed in Latin by the phrase common 
still, in extremis, and because Luke speaks of her as 
" a-dying," these critics have said that we have a 
direct contradiction. Surely nothing is easier to 
adjust than these supposed differences. Nothing 
could be more natural than that the father would 
use in his ignorance of the exact fact at the time 
of his speaking, all the expressions which all the 
evangelists record. He left his beloved daughter at 
her last gasp; her life was then ebbing away, and 
when he reached the side of Christ he could not tell 
with certainty whether or not she was then living. 
Perplexed as to the real state of the case he doubt- 
less used all the expressions which the various 
evangelists have put into his mouth. 

This man was a ruler of the synagogue. The 
evangelist Matthew speaks of him generally as " a 
certain ruler " ; the latter two evangelists give us 
his name and identify him more accurately as one 



86 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

of the officers of the synagogue. It is almost certain 
that the synagogue was that of Capernaum in which 
place Jesus then was. It is not therefore impossible 
that this ruler was one of the deputation which 
afterward came to the Lord on behalf of the heathen 
centurion. On this present occasion, however, he 
goes to Jesus, as we have seen, on behalf of his own 
child. 

Christ at once yielded to the father's piteous ap- 
peal; but there was a delay upon the journey. The 
large crowd which had gathered about Christ was 
itself a cause of delay. There are often crowds 
about Christ still, crowds which may prevent us 
from bringing the sick to him even as was true in 
the days of his flesh. There was delay also on 
this occasion when Christ started for the ruler's 
house. He had not gone far when a woman presses 
her way through the crowd and touches the hem of 
his garment. Christ turns himself about and asks, 
" Who touched me? " You remember the disciples' 
reply in substance, " Master, that is a very strange 
question, for many are pressing about you." But 
Christ said with equal tenderness and authority, 
" Somebody hath touched me." There was a touch 
of faith which Christ immediately recognized, and 
which at once secured healing power. Thank God, 
Christ can still be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities. A further delay was caused by the con- 
versation which resulted from this miracle. The 
heart of the father, we can well suppose, was endur- 



THE RAISING OF JAIRUS 5 DAUGHTER 87 

ing agony while this delay lasted. We can well 
imagine that the father's heart was upon his dying 
child in his saddened home, and that he was most 
impatient because of this delay. We must not sup- 
pose, however, that delays are denials on the part of 
Christ. He waits only that he may find the fittest 
time for the display of his mercy. The Lord has 
all eternity at his command. He is never in haste 
and he never delays too long. 

Arrival of the Messengers. 

At this point in the narrative we have an account 
of the coming of the messengers from the father's 
home. They pronounce the unspeakably sad words, 
" Thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou the 
Master any further ?" I do not suppose that this mes- 
sage was intended for our Lord's ears, but for the 
father's only. The Lord was then engaged in speak- 
ing to the woman, but he heard the words ; his ear 
is quick to catch the faintest tones expressive of the 
sorrows of his children. We are told that " as soon 
as he heard the word that was spoken he saith to the 
ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only be- 
lieve. " These messengers probably had faith suf- 
ficient to believe that Christ could raise up the 
maiden although in the last stage of life, that he 
could fan the dying spark of life into a bright flame ; 
but they did not seem to have believed that when 
that spark was entirely extinguished it would be 
possible for Christ again to enkindle it. Their faith 



88 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

was gone ; perhaps the father's was going and just at 
that moment our Lord spoke his gracious words of 
encouragement. Doubtless, as Dean Trench sug- 
gests, we ought to emphasize the words " as soon 
as." The thought is that the very moment that 
doubt began to take the place of faith in the father's 
mind the Lord gave him this word of encouragement 
and hope. I thank the Lord Jesus for these words, 
" Be not afraid, only believe." Oh, this was tender- 
ness indeed! 

At that critical moment in his experience came the 
encouraging exhortation from the lips of Christ. 
How many fathers and mothers have gone through 
times of trial when they needed just such a message 
as this from the blessed Lord ! A sick son or daugh- 
ter, a wayward son or daughter, will test the faith of 
parents until that faith is but a flickering spark. 
Then such a word as this from Christ will cause it to 
become a flame, scattering darkness and doubt and 
illumining heart and home. Have any of you been 
pleading with Christ for strength and grace in 
crucial experiences? Listen then to-day and you 
will hear him say with the matchless sweetness of 
his loving voice, " Be not afraid, only believe." 
What precious assurances believers have of Christ's 
sympathy and help in time of trial ! 

These messengers quite misunderstood Christ 
when they said, " Trouble not the Master." Doubt- 
less they were honest in their spirit and speech ; but 
they were quite mistaken in their judgment of his 



THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER 89 

character. Many men now in a spirit of unbelief 
say, " Trouble not the Master " ; others carried away 
by the spirit of the mocking secularist say, " Trouble 
not the Master " ; and others engrossed in the trivial 
things of life say, " Trouble not the Master " ; and 
still others far down in the depths of despondency 
say with mingled doubt and despair, " Trouble not 
the Master." They all misunderstand alike their 
own privilege and the Lord's purpose. Forever 
silenced be the spirit that leads men because of their 
ignorance of Christ's love to use the language of 
these messengers. There can be no trouble on our 
part too insignificant to escape his notice. We 
honor him when we cast ourselves and our burdens 
upon his mighty and gentle heart. 

The Ruler's Sad Home. 

We follow this strange group as they hasten 
toward the ruler's home. At last his home is 
reached. What does our Lord find on his arrival? 
A large, noisy, and tumultuous company. You are 
aware that it was the custom of the Jews to bury 
their dead, if possible, on the day of their death or 
on the day following. You know also that they 
were accustomed to have large numbers of hired 
mourners, the number depending upon the wealth 
and station of the family. These mourners were 
ready to weep, and to lament, and to shout, and to 
howl, according to the instruction and remunera- 
tion which they received. They sang aloud of the 



90 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

virtues of the deceased, and in doleful strains 
mourned with family and with friends. Minstrels 
also add their noise to the general confusion till the 
air is rent with the wailings of these hired mourners. 
All such manifestation of grief is utterly distaste- 
ful to persons of refined feelings. We have in the 
Oriental funerals of to-day evidences of the continu- 
ance of these customs. The Irish, in their wakes, 
give us modern representations of this wretched 
Oriental custom. But our Lord at once rebuked 
these loud expressions of grief. This he did be- 
cause there was no reason to lament the maiden 
as if she were to remain in the power of death. 
While she was truly dead and not in a swoon she 
was so soon to be restored to life that she ought to 
be spoken of as asleep rather than dead. Our Lord 
used similar language of Lazarus, although he meant 
to teach that he was really dead. In the presence of 
Christ's fulness of life and power all the dead may be 
spoken of as asleep, hence the noise of this tumul- 
tuous group w r as utterly out of place. These mourn- 
ers laughed him to scorn, showing clearly that in 
their belief the maiden was not only then dead, but 
was ever so to remain. Real mourning Christ will 
always respect ; tears are not unmanly, they are not 
unchristian ; but the man who wipes his eye when he 
sheds no tear because he would produce in others 
the impression that he is sympathetic, is false to 
himself and an abomination to Christ. Christ had 
no sympathy with unreality; none with cant; none 



THE RAISING OF JAIRUS DAUGHTER 91 

with hypocrisy of whatever kind and wherever 
found. 

There was still another reason why these mourn- 
ers should be driven out — they were not proper 
witnesses of so sublime and august a spectacle as 
was soon to be seen. Christ, therefore, dismisses 
them. There are always those who have no eyes to 
see Christ's noblest works, and no hearts to feel his 
tenderest words. This is as true to-day as when 
Christ was upon earth. Only five persons are the 
witnesses of the miracle — the three chosen disciples, 
Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother 
of the maiden. Dean Trench calls attention to the 
fact that these disciples were the elect of the elect, 
that they were the flower and the crown of the apos- 
tolic band ; and others have spoken of the fact that 
they were witnesses not only of this miracle, but of 
the glories of the Transfiguration and of the agonies 
of the garden. They were the chosen three within 
the circle of the chosen twelve. The father and 
mother must also be witnesses of the great miracle 
and sublime mystery. The father had prayed that 
Christ would come to preserve his child from death. 
Christ could have healed the maiden without com- 
ing, and after coming he could have called her back 
to life without putting his hand upon her; but 
he has lessons to teach by all the acts performed in 
connection with this miracle. Behold the scene ! 
The noisy mourners are driven out. The silence of 
death broods in the darkened home. Christ, his 



92 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

three disciples, and the father and mother are be- 
side the couch of the dead maiden. It is a wonder- 
ful moment; no one of these five witnesses could 
ever forget this experience. It was important that 
Christ should show the reality of his relation as the 
Lord of life to this maiden as the subject of death. 
He therefore takes the child by the hand ; he speaks 
to her two words — marvelous words, life-giving 
words, words accompanied by divine power — 
Talitha Cumi. These are Aramaic words. Mark, 
with his characteristic vividness, records them in 
their original form and then interprets them, 
" Maiden, arise." What a marvelous moment ! 
What a sublime sight now greets us ! Could we but 
look for a moment into that room where the maiden 
of twelve lies dead with her peaceful face on her 
pillow, the three disciples, the father and mother, 
and the Lord Jesus beside her, we would certainly 
stand there with bated breath. Look ! the maiden is 
springing to her feet at the touch of Christ's hand 
and at the sound of his voice ! We are distinctly told 
that her spirit came again " and she arose straight- 
way and walked." Our Lord, careful of the pro- 
prieties of every occasion, commanded that meat 
should be given her ; a command very necessary, as 
her parents in their indescribable joy might have 
forgotten so needful a provision. 

Blessed is that home where Jesus comes as the 
associate and Saviour of parents and children! 
Blessed are those children on whom the hand of 



THE RAISING OF JAIRUS* DAUGHTER 93 

Christ rests in benediction ! I would rather have my 
children the children of God than have them kings 
and princes of the earth, if they were without God 
and without hope. I would rather have Christ 
come to my home to glorify it with his presence, to 
sanctify it with his purity, to illumine it with his 
light, and to beautify it with his life than have as 
my guest the proudest scion of the loftiest royalty. 
Christ was always a practical friend in every home 
in which he came. I often think that his greatest 
glory is seen in his attention to little things. We 
sometimes think that we cannot be great unless 
we do what we call great things for God and for 
man; but true greatness is often best shown in do- 
ing little things in a great way, in a royal manner, 
and with a Christlike spirit. By commanding the 
parents to give food to their risen daughter Christ 
would prove to them that her recovery was real, that 
she was not a ghost, but real flesh and blood, their 
own beloved daughter now rescued from the power 
of death and restored to their love. Behold her 
as she sits before them, her heart throbbing with 
life, her eye bright with hope, her cheek flushed 
with health, and her whole soul glowing with love 
to her deliverer. What wonder and what joy must 
have filled that room that day ! 

We have gone over this story together in this 
simple, familiar, and I trust somewhat practical way. 
Let us see what lessons naturally come out of this 
narrative. 






94 advent and other sermons 

Lessons. 

First, we see that sorrow comes to the homes of 
the great as well as to the homes of the humble. 
This man was a ruler of the synagogue, a leader of 
public service, a man of influence religiously, so- 
cially, and politically, for the relation between the 
Church and the State in those days was very close. 
He was a magistrate, speaking civilly ; speaking re- 
ligiously, he was a ruler of the synagogue, a man of 
prominence and a man of power — and yet sorrow 
came to his home. Death comes to all, as the old 
Latin poet sang long ago: 

Death comes with equal step, 
Knocks at the palace gate 
And at the cottage door. 

He will come to your home ; he will come to mine. 
His dark shadow may fall across our threshold 
when least we think it. None will be exempt. 
There are many in this house now who wear the 
signs of mourning. Death has been at your homes. 
But beloved there are sadder things than death — 
a dissipated son is often worse than a dead son; a 
wayward daughter makes sadder hearts than a dead 
daughter. Oh, is there a son here this morning who 
is bringing down his father and mother with sorrow 
to the grave ! Perhaps there is some boy away 
from home who has turned his back upon his mother 
and his mother's God. I beeseech you to come as 



THE RAISING OF JAIRUS' DAUGHTER 95 

the prodigal came — come confessing your sin, come 
back again to your Father's house! 

We learn as a second lesson that Christ is the true 
source of help in every sorrow which may come to 
our homes and hearts. Doubtless this man waited 
long, waited to the very last before he went to 
Christ, waited until the flame of life was flickering 
and just about to go out. Too many imitate him ; 
they will not go to God in the sunshine ; they wait 
for the darkness of midnight. It is well that men 
and women should come to Christ even if it be at 
the eleventh hour — even if it be in the darkness of 
midnight; it is better that they should come even 
though they should do only what the sailor said he 
did — " throw the fag ends of life into the face of 
God/' But how much better to come in strength, 
in health, in youth, and in the glory of manhood. 
Have Christ a guest in your home when all is merry, 
while the ringing laughter of children, the sweetest 
music ever heard in the home, is heard throughout 
the entire dwelling. Come then to Christ, and when 
the darkness comes he will be near ; you will not have 
to pray in the language of the beautiful hymn, 
" Abide with me " but you will be able to sing, 
" Lo, thou art with me, even as thou hast promised/' 

Now notice as a last lesson that Christ is never ap- 
pealed to in vain. It seemed for a time in this case to 
be in vain, that the father's faith might be tried. He 
might have asked, " Oh, why do those people keep 
him from my door ? She is dying ; maybe even now 



96 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

it is too late ! " How his heart is going from that 
crowd of people to his home ! How he thought of 
that pale face ! Ah, what it is to have a sick child ! 
"Why will these people crowd about my Lord? 
My only hope is in Christ — if he would only come ! " 
Ah, troubled father, he will come at the right time ! 
You never go to Christ in vain for yourself or for 
others. That maiden is now dead; Jairus is dead; 
the mother is dead ; the disciples are dead ; but Jesus 
Christ lives. He passes up and down these aisles. 
He goes through these pews and he says to every 
parent and to every child, " What wilt thou that I 
should do to thee ? " 

O invite Christ to your home; invite Christ to 
your heart and have him as your constant guest, for 
his name's sake ! Amen. 



VII 
THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW'S SON 1 

Text: Behold, there was a dead man carried out, the 
only son of his mother, and she was a widow. — Luke 7 : 
11-17. 

THE enemies of our Lord testified that " never 
man spake like this man." Both the friends 
and the foes of Jesus might testify that never man 
sympathized like this Man. Of this sympathy the 
narrative before us is an admirable illustration. 
The miracle of raising to life the son of the widow 
of Nain is recorded by Luke only. He records the 
raising from the dead of two persons by Jesus — 
the son of the widow of Nain and also the daughter 
of Jairus. Matthew and Mark record one case — 
that of the daughter of Jairus; and the evangelist 
John records only one instance of the raising from 
the dead — that of Lazarus. Perhaps there were 
many other persons raised from death by the power 
of Christ during his earthly life, but if so we have 
no record of these cases. Only those were given 
which best accorded with the purpose which each 
evangelist had in view in the writing of his Gospel. 

1 In the author's volume entitled " The Preeminence of Christ," 
published by F. M. Barton, Cleveland, Ohio, there is a sermon on 
" The Raising of Lazarus." Thus the series on the raisings from 
the dead by our Lord during his personal ministry is completed. 

G 97 



98 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

It is always an extremely difficult matter to write 
an accurate biography; but few such biographies 
have been written during the centuries. We are fa- 
miliar, of course, with Boswell's " Johnson." We are 
also familiar with Trevelyan's admirable life of his 
uncle, Lord Macaulay. There are a few other ex- 
cellent biographies, but all literary men recognize 
the fact that the writing of biography is extremely 
difficult. I venture to say that no writer ever con- 
densed more meaning into a single phrase than did 
the Apostle Peter in the tenth chapter of the Acts 
of the Apostles, when he said of our divine Lord, 
" Who went about doing good." In that phrase he 
epitomized the life of the Lord. Let that phrase 
sink into your thought ; let it translate itself into the 
volume which it suggests. It brings at once be- 
fore our minds the picture of our Lord going about 
morning, noon, and night, day after day, and month 
after month, doing good. This phrase gives us the 
picture of our Lord going about with benedictions 
dropping from his lips and manifold blessings from 
his hands. Wherever he went homes were bright- 
ened, hearts were cheered, lives ennobled, and earth, 
to some degree at least, transformed into heaven. 
No more beautiful phrase than that was ever written 
as descriptive of our Lord's bountiful and benedic- 
tory life. 

Let us take that thought into our minds in con- 
nection with the miracle which forms the subject of 
discussion this morning. If the order of events is 






THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW S SON 99 

given correctly in our common version, yesterday 
our Lord was at Capernaum, and there raised from 
illness the servant of the centurion. To-day we see 
him at Nain, as he raises from death the son of the 
widow. Yesterday he healed the sick; to-day he 
raises the dead; and every day and everywhere he 
goes about doing good. 

The distance from Capernaum to Nain is prob- 
ably twenty-four or twenty-five miles. Perhaps 
Jesus went part of the way by boat, sailing to the 
southern end of the sea of Galilee, and then passing 
down the Jordan Valley to the point where the 
wadies of Esdraelon slope down to the valley. 
Traveling in this way Jesus could easily reach Nain 
about the middle of the afternoon, and so would be 
present at the time indicated in the account of the 
miracle. But even though the journey were taken 
on foot all the way from Capernaum to Nain, there 
would be no difficulty in reaching the latter place 
in the evening, and it is well known that funerals 
usually took place among the Jews toward evening. 
We have thus brought to our notice two interesting 
and instructive processions near the rock-hewn 
tombs perhaps to the west of Nain. Leading one 
procession was the Lord of life and glory, who was 
that day to open the gates of death and to deliver a 
young man from the power of death and the grave. 
Leading the other procession was the dead young 
man followed by a multitude of sympathizing friends 
and neighbors. The whole scene was one of remark- 

LOfC 



IOO 



ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



able beauty and attractiveness. It was the early 
springtide in Galilee and the whole land, we may be 
well assured, was clad in garments of beauty. The 
air was melodious with the songs of birds and 
fragrant with the odor of flowers. Christ was at 
this time at the very height of his popularity. This 
was the first year of his ministry ; the deadly opposi- 
tion which afterward developed had not yet been 
aroused. The Pharisees and other leaders opposed 
to him had not yet come into open conflict with 
him ; and he had not yet sifted his followers by ap- 
plying to them the severer tests of his later ministry. 
His popularity was now great, and it was daily 
growing greater. A new day apparently was dawn- 
ing for Israel; our Lord had a large place in their 
appreciation and affection. The result was that 
crowds followed him on that spring morning as he 
journeyed toward Nain ; the multitude was enthusi- 
astic, admiring, and adoring. The hopes of the 
people were high regarding the new day that had 
come to Israel and regarding also the high character 
of this new leader; it must be admitted, however, 
that their conceptions of Christ were often erroneous 
and sometimes false to his spiritual claims and 
character. 

We thus behold the two processions meeting near 
the gate of the city of Nain. It was the custom of 
the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, to bury 
their dead outside of their cities. The case of David 
among the Jews was an exception to the ordinary 



THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW S SON IOI 

rule. Which of these processions shall yield to the 
other? Ordinarily among the Jews all considera- 
tions gave way before a funeral procession. Cir- 
cumstances, however, are different on this particular 
occasion. Holding these approaching processions 
in mind, we glance for a moment at the city of 
Nain, which was the home of the sorrowful widow 
who is an object of special interest in one of these 
processions. Nain means pasture or gracefulness. 
It was a town located about four miles southwest of 
Mount Tabor, and about, as we have already seen, 
twenty-four or twenty-five miles southwest of Ca- 
pernaum. It was picturesquely situated on a low 
mountain spur of Little Hermon, where the hill 
descends into the plain of Esdraelon. It was once a 
town of considerable extent, as it had walls and 
gates ; it now consists of a cluster of ruins of about 
twenty wretched mud and stone dwellings or huts 
with low doorways. It has an attractive fountain, 
and this fact has had much to do with the continu- 
ance of the town to the present. The traveler to-day 
gazes upon a scene widely different from that pre- 
sented by Nain in the days of our Lord. Now the 
rich gardens of that day are no more; the fruit 
trees are also gone. A painful sense of desolation 
is now over the entire scene. On the left rise the 
hills behind which Nazareth is embosomed; and 
southward lies Shunem, and yonder is the plain of 
Jezreel. 

We stand near our Lord as the processions ap- 



102 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

proach each other and we strive to take in the entire 
scene. 

Christ's Observance of the Widow. 

Our attention is directed in the first place to 
Christ's observance of the widow in her sorrow. As 
we observe this woman we are reminded of the 
sorrowful days in her life which preceded the sad 
event in which she is so prominent an actor. We 
think of the long struggle in her home to restore to 
health her son, who has now passed into the realm of 
the dead. All efforts that could be made were in 
vain. The best medical skill of the hour had doubt- 
less been employed. The most earnest prayers of 
the most godly people in Nain had been offered. 
But all was in vain. The angel of death has done 
his dire work ; and now the last sad offices have been 
performed and the body is laid out according to 
the custom of the time, not in a coffin such as was 
used by the Egyptians, but on a bier — perhaps a 
wicker-work basket — and the procession starts for 
the place of burial. Jesus observed with the utmost 
tenderness this sorrowful woman. Her case was 
peculiarly sad ; she was sorrowing for her only son. 
Nothing can surpass the descriptions of grief for 
an only son that are given us in various Old 
Testament scriptures. In Jer. 6 : 26, we have the 
phrase, " Make thee mourning as for an only 
son, most bitter lamentation." In Zech. 12 : 10 we 
have the words, " They shall look upon me whom 



THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW S SON IO3 

they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as 
one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitter- 
ness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first- 
born. " In Amos 8 : 10 we have the words, " And I 
will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the 
end thereof as a bitter day." We can readily under- 
stand somewhat of the intensity of this woman's 
grief, and of the powerful appeal which that grief 
made to the sympathetic heart of our divine Lord 
and Master. We observe, also, that our Lord deeply 
sympathized with this woman in her sorrow. With 
two dashes of his brush the evangelist Luke paints 
the picture of this woman on that sad day. Tradi- 
tion has told us that Luke was a painter. Probably 
the tradition arose from the fact that he has given so 
many graphic pictures of scenes which he has de- 
scribed. It would be difficult, if not impossible, in 
two strokes of the brush to paint a more complete 
picture of profound grief than Luke has given us 
in this narrative. In those two touches he has re- 
vealed his genius as a writer. Raphael, by a single 
stroke, even with a piece of chalk, gave unmistakable 
evidences of his artistic skill. With a sweep of his 
hand in the studio of Angelo he made a perfect 
circle; the moment Angelo entered and saw it he 
said, ' Raphael has been here." No other artist, 
probably, in the world could have made that circle 
with a single sweep of his hand so perfectly as did 
Raphael. Raphael virtually wrote his name in mak- 
ing that perfect circle. Luke has written his name 



104 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

and has given us unmistakable examples of his 
unique genius in the picture he has painted of this 
sorrowful woman. When he described her as being 
a widow he gave the complete stroke to the picture. 
This was not the first funeral in which she was the 
chief mourner. She had learned to lean on the 
strong arm and brave heart of her boy ; and now he 
is taken from her. This was the sorrowful scene 
which moved the compassionate heart of our loving 
Lord. 

Christ's Sympathy With This Sorrowful 
Woman. 

We are not surprised that it should be added in 
the narrative that u he had compassion on her.'" 
Sorrow evermore appeals powerfully to the sympa- 
thetic soul of our divine-human Lord. Christ's 
heart was deeply touched and his sympathy was 
powerfully aroused. It is most blessed to us that 
we have a Saviour like Jesus Christ. I have learned 
in these recent years to know Jesus better than I 
ever knew him before : to me now his face is win- 
somely beautiful, his voice is divinely melodious, 
and his hand is graciously tender. We have a 
Saviour mighty as God, a Saviour who is God : we 
have a Saviour gentler than a mother, a Saviour 
who has a mother's heart. You observe also in 
the narrative how his compassion manifested 
itself. Xo one had addressed him, no one had 
made any appeal to him for sympathy or for 



THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW'S SON 105 

help of any sort. In the case of the daughter 
of Jairus messengers went to Jesus to solicit his 
help; in the case of the centurion's servant friends 
begged the intervention of Jesus. But in the case 
immediately before us, not one word, so far as we 
can discover, has been addressed to Jesus appealing 
for his compassion and help. He takes the initiative 
under the promptings of his own loving heart. He 
not only cherishes profound sympathy for this sor- 
rowful woman, but he expresses that sympathy in 
tender and appropriate words. We see him stepping 
forward and personally addressing her in the words, 
" Weep not." She must have been greatly surprised 
when a stranger thus broke in upon her deep and 
silent grief; she may even for a moment have con- 
sidered his address as intrusive. She has been pay- 
ing little attention to the procession of which she is 
a part, or to the other procession approaching in 
the opposite quarter. But the moment she is ad- 
dressed she must have looked up wondering and 
startled. We can imagine her asking within herself 
the question : " Who is this thus addressing me ? 
Who intrudes upon the sacredness of my sorrow ? " 
But as she looked into his face so radiant with light 
and love, and into his eyes so gentle and kind, she 
knew at once that no common intruder but a loving 
and sympathetic friend had asked her this compas- 
sionate question. " Ah, broken-hearted woman ! 
You have wept bitter tears ; be not weeping now ; He 
is come who can wipe away all tears from every 



106 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

eye." As a pastor these words deeply move me. I 
often hesitate to address those who are in sorrow. 
I know that my warmest words seem cold, my 
kindest thoughts seem cruel, and my heartiest hand- 
grasp seems indifferent. But when Jesus said, 
" Weep not," power to wipe away the tears of sor- 
row went with his words. He could stem the foun- 
tain of grief; his words not only expressed the 
sympathy of his heart, but with them there went 
power to still the throbbing hearts of those who 
mourned. Already he anticipated that time when 
" God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for 
the former things are passed away." 

Christ's Recovery from Death of the Widow's 
Son. 

Our Lord's sympathy was translated into action 
for the removal of the sorrow with which he sym- 
pathized. The mother need not mourn longer for 
her son as dead, he is so soon to be restored to life. 
We read that our Lord " touched the bier." He 
was heedless of purely ceremonial observances; he 
feared not pollution arising from contact with the 
dead. He was the Lord of life and the Master of 
death, and as such he hesitated not a moment to 
touch the bier. This is a moment of deepest inter- 
est. How startled both processions must have been ! 
The tension was great ; it was beyond the power of 



THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW S SON I07 

words to express. They who bore the young man 
on his bier " stood still." They felt the presence of 
a divine Personality. It is a breathless moment. 
Our Lord, as we may well believe, in a calm, clear, 
quiet tone said : " Young man, I say unto thee 
arise." For a moment the suspense is greater even 
than before; for a moment all watch with speech- 
less and almost breathless interest. What next shall 
happen? Has there appeared One who has power 
over death and the grave? Has a voice spoken 
which will echo through the chambers of death's 
dark realm ? Is death now to be dethroned and dis- 
crowned? After the lapse of the centuries we also 
listen with breathless interest to the command given 
by Christ and wait with high hopes for the result. 
What is that result? The inspired narrative an- 
swers our question : " He that was dead sat up and 
began to speak." Behold this young man rising 
from his bier in obedience to the power of Christ! 
What a marvelous moment was that ! How startled 
this young man must have been! We can well 
imagine that he asks : " Where have I been ? What 
has happened? Who are these people standing 
about me? Why does my mother so weep? Who 
is he who with authoritative tones has addressed 
me ? " Now the young man begins to speak. What 
does he say? Not one word of the strange experi- 
ences which may have come to him in the realm of 
darkness and death. No more did the daughter of 
Jairus, nor Lazarus, the brother of Martha and 



108 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Mary, speak on their return to life of what they may 
have seen or heard during their sojourn in the realm 
of death and the grave. We can imagine that this 
young man speaks words of sympathy toward his 
mother, and of gratitude, love, and adoration toward 
Jesus Christ his divine deliverer from the power of 
death. 

This same Christ is present in this audience this 
morning. He is commanding you, men and women, 
to " Arise." In his name I repeat his command, 
" Arise from the dead and Christ will give you life." 
Have you, men and women, been born again from 
the death of sin? Why then are your lips dumb? 
Have you no words to speak in praise of your De- 
liverer? Did you speak one word for Jesus last 
week? Did you last month? Did you last year? 
Have you not been silent when you ought to have 
been voiceful? Have you not been cowardly when 
you ought to have been heroic ? Shall you not from 
this time forth speak brave, loyal, and loving words 
for Him who has called you from darkness to light 
and from death to life ? 

It is most touching to read that Christ " delivered 
him to his mother." What a moment that was for 
this joyous mother ! Every true pastor envies Jesus 
this marvelous power. Mingled majesty, grace, and 
mercy marked him in his relation to the young man 
on the one side, and to the glad and grateful 
mother on the other side. Jesus is now proving 
himself to be the " Resurrection and the Life." He 



THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW S SON IO9 

is incarnate compassion employing absolute power 
to wipe away a widow's tears and to comfort her 
sorrowful heart. Every pastor longs to possess, in 
some degree at least, this divine power. Often a 
pastor would give the wealth of the world if it were 
his to give back a sick daughter to her mother. He 
would weep tears of blood if he could restore a way- 
ward son to his father. The greatest joy in life is 
to be able, with God's help, to raise men and women 
from the death of sin to the life of God, and joy- 
ously to restore them to their parents. I appeal to 
you who are still strangers to Christ and to God to 
come to-day to your Father's heart and home. I 
appeal to you, men and women, that you strive to 
echo the mighty voice of Christ in calling wanderers 
back to him. You do not wish in heaven to wear 
starless crowns; you do not desire to stand in the 
presence, of Jesus without some proofs that on earth 
you have won wanderers to his feet and to his heart. 
Beautiful is the act of restoring this young man 
to his mother as a promise, pledge, and proof that 
the day is coming when all the dead shall hear the 
voice of Christ as the " Resurrection and the Life," 
and shall come forth from their graves to be re- 
stored to one another in family life and love. This 
is the joyous hope which we are all permitted to 
cherish as we look forward to that glad day when 
death shall lose its power, and when Christ shall 
march forth in triumph with the keys of death and 
hades suspended from his girdle. 



iio advent and other sermons 

The Effect of the Miracle Upon the People. 

Great fear came upon all. They glorified God 
and affirmed that a great prophet had risen in Israel. 
When men are redeemed by God's grace, God is 
abundantly glorified. When men become new 
creatures in Christ Jesus the whole world about 
them becomes new; the sun shines with a new 
brightness, the flowers bloom with additional sweet- 
ness, and the birds sing with a melody never known 
before. 

They might well testify that a great prophet had 
risen among them. He who could deliver from the 
power of death was great indeed. Elijah and 
Elisha, by the power of God, brought men back to 
life; this they did, however, as the result of great 
efifort and of earnest prayer. They agonized before 
God and struggled in the presence of the dead to 
bring life back from death. But Jesus, as the 
Master of life and death, uttered one authoritative 
word and the young man sat up. Jesus could call 
the daughter of Jairus back to life from her bed in 
the house, and the son of the widow of Nain from 
his bier in the street, and Lazarus, the brother of 
Martha and Mary, from his grave. Humanly speak- 
ing, we have here an ascending scale of difficulty, 
but all difficulties vanish in the presence of the 
divine Christ who is Lord of death as truly as he is 
Master of life. 

Oh, that God through my lips would speak to 



THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW'S SON III 

men and women in this audience to-day saying to 
them: "Arise from the death of sin and speak 
words of testimony for Christ as divine Saviour and 
Lord." Fathers, have you dead sons ? Mothers, have 
you daughters who are strangers to Christ and the 
great salvation ? Are there wayward daughters and 
prodigal sons in this audience ? Oh, then let me be- 
seech you to-day to hear the voice of Jesus and to 
begin the Christian life! Then, fathers and 
mothers, your children will be doubly yours be- 
cause you and they have become God's children by 
a new creation. O wandering boys and girls, come 
back now to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. 
Then there shall be joy in heaven over repentant 
sinners, over those who have been translated from 
darkness into light and from death into life. Thus 
the joy of heaven will be experienced on earth 
through the light and love and life of Jesus Christ 
our Lord and Saviour. 



VIII 



THE DYING LAD AND THE LIVING WELL » 



Text: And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well 
of water: and she went, and filled the bottle with water, 
and gave the lad drink. — Gen. 21 : 19. 

FOR several years it has been in my mind to 
preach a series of Sunday evening discourses 
during the heated term on the wells, fountains, and 
springs of the Bible. Never before, however, have I 
attempted to carry out this long-cherished purpose. 
It has seemed to me that no season of the year could 
be so appropriate for such a series of sermons as that 
now contemplated as the summer season. We shall 
hear in this series of sermons the sweet music of the 
splash and the gurgle of the water. We shall see 
the crystal stream flowing from these open wells, 
springs, and fountains. We shall see the cattle 
with their heaving sides come to dip their noses into 
the crystal stream that their heated bodies may be 
refreshed. We shall see weary people coming with 
their whole families at times, and sometimes as indi- 
viduals, that their thirst may be quenched, their 

1 On consecutive Sunday evenings during the summer season the 
author preached on wells, fountains, and springs of the Bible. All 
the sermons, however, were not reported; otherwise they would have 
appeared as a separate volume. The author takes the liberty of 
suggesting similar courses to his brethren in the ministry. 

112 



THE DYING LAD AND THE LIVING WELL II3 

bodies refreshed, and their spirits revived. It is dif- 
ficult for us in this northern clime to appreciate fully 
the importance attached in Oriental countries to 
fountains, springs, and wells. Our climate is too 
humid for us to understand fully this importance. 
Water with us is too abundant for us to appreciate 
it as do those living in Oriental lands. With Eastern 
people water is a luxury. They become expert as 
judges of good water. There are shops in Constan- 
tinople where nothing but water is sold, and the 
prices vary according to the springs from which it is 
brought. In those countries and in earlier times 
battles were fought for the possession of fountains ; 
forts were erected in order that this tribe or that 
might retain possession of a well for which the tribe 
had bravely fought through bloody wars. It was 
common then and it is common still in wars, if the 
enemy is forced to retreat, to fill up the wells with 
stones, with sand, and sometimes with the dead 
bodies of animals. No regard for others kept from 
such outrage. Instances are on record in recent 
history even where this practice has been resorted 
to. We know too, that the Turkish government 
has a treaty with certain Arab tribes not to fill 
up the wells with stones or sand. These Arab tribes 
receive from the government a certain amount of 
money and a number of garments each year as a 
bribe that they shall not fill up these wells along 
the route of Mohammedans pursuing their journey 
to their sacred places. 

H 



114 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

A Strange Story. 

The text selected for this evening brings before 
us a strange story of primitive times and ancient 
manners. Hagar and Ishmael on the one side, and 
Abraham and Sarah on the other, are the chief char- 
acters to be introduced. We know that the word 
Hagar, which is pure Hebrew, means a stranger, 
and we know also that she became an inmate of 
Abraham's family although a native of Egypt, and 
the name continued to be applied to her after she 
had been in the patriarch's household and was no 
longer a stranger. Perhaps the name was given to 
her after the family had emigrated to Canaan. She 
was formerly one of the female slaves given by 
Pharaoh to Abraham during his visit to Egypt. She 
thus became Sarah's maid and was to a great de- 
gree under her control. From her servile condition 
in Abraham's house she has risen into immortality 
because so closely associated with the history of this 
ancient patriarch. By an unwise expedient Sarah 
thus gave unexpected honor to the Egyptian maid ; 
but the elevation was too great for Hagar. Her 
head was turned by the dizzy height to which she 
was exalted. Her promotion led her to treat her 
mistress with disrespect and even insolence, and 
Sarah in turn manifested toward her maid all the 
peevishness, petulance, and envy of which an angry 
woman's nature is capable. Sarah doubtless re- 
pented of her rash act, and she certainly endeavored 



THE DYING LAD AND THE LIVING WELL II5 

to put all the blame upon Abraham himself. Abra- 
ham seems to have given her almost unlimited 
power in these critical circumstances, and in what 
followed faced unpleasant results. 

Family Differences. 

It is still true in countries where polygamy is per- 
mitted that the principal wife has authority over all 
the other wives. Some commentators believe that 
Sarah even resorted to corporal punishment, but the 
word which gives that suggestion is capable of a 
more lenient interpretation. Curiously enough from 
this supposed interpretation Augustine drew an 
elaborate argument for inflicting civil penalties on 
those whom he deemed to be heretics. In any case 
Hagar finally determined on flight. Perhaps her 
intention was to return to her relatives in Egypt; 
she certainly went in the way leading to that coun- 
try. This path led her to what was afterward called 
Shur. She had to traverse a tract of sandy country 
and was exposed to many trials on her journey. In 
this lonely region while waiting by a fountain to 
replenish her supply of water the angel of the Lord 
met her, gave her encouraging promises, and com- 
manded her to return to her mistress. As the re- 
sult of this heavenly visitation the place was after- 
ward named Beer-lahai-roi, " the well of the visible 
God." Hagar returned to the family of the patri- 
arch and her child was named Ishmael, meaning 
" God hath heard." In these two names she em- 



Il6 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

bodied the experiences of that sad hour in her 
checkered life. 

A Child of Promise. 

After the lapse of fourteen years from the birth 
of Ishmael, Isaac the child of promise is born. 
Three more years, as it is supposed, pass and the 
festival of the weaning of Isaac is held. Ishmael is 
now a boy, according to the best interpretation of 
the narrative, of seventeen years of age. He appre- 
ciates fully his changed relations to the family of 
Abraham and to the promised inheritance. Doubt- 
less he is also conscious that Sarah's affection is now 
lavished upon another and that he is the object of 
her neglect, if not of her dislike. At this festival 
Isaac is dressed in the sacred and symbolic robe in- 
dicative of his claim to the birthright ; he was also 
formally recognized as the heir of the tribe. It was 
and is the practice in the East that the son of a slave 
or secondary wife is always superseded by the son 
of a free woman, though much younger than the 
child of the bondwoman. All these changed rela- 
tions Ishmael now understood. He disturbed the 
peace of the festival by mocking the son of Sarah. 
We know not the nature of his conduct, but the word 
translated " mocking " is a word of varied meanings. 
Probably here it can be best represented by some 
form of wanton teasing, by gestures and remarks 
peculiarly calculated to annoy Isaac and to enrage 
Sarah. Perhaps he reflected on Sarah's great age; 



THE DYING LAD AND THE LIVING WELL 117 

it is certain he resorted to some of the many ways 
in which the boy of larger growth can enrage the 
smaller boy, and thus that boy's parents, and espe- 
cially the mother. Nothing could satisfy Sarah 
from that moment but that Hagar should be driven 
from the family. 

Sarah's conduct was that of an ambitious and 
peevish woman. Hagar was, according to the cus- 
toms of the country, Abraham's lawful, though 
secondary, wife. She ought not to have been given 
up to the caprice and jealousy of a fierce woman, 
such as Sarah then was. She had been guilty of a 
culpable expedient, then of disobedience to Abra- 
ham, and finally of irreverence toward God. We 
are not called upon to justify the conduct of Sarah 
even though she occupies so honored a place in 
Hebrew history. Doubtless she intended that the 
expulsion of Hagar should be equivalent to some 
form of legal repudiation or divorce. We cannot 
rightly understand her purpose except we see in it 
the determination to exclude Ishmael by a legal act 
from all share in the inheritance. This is the true 
significance of the spirit she showed and the plans 
which she inaugurated. This explanation throws 
light upon Abraham's unwillingness to carry out the 
purpose of Sarah. Her thoughts were now fixed 
exclusively on Isaac; she considered Ishmael as a 
dangerous rival and she determined to punish him 
and his mother. But for Ishmael Abraham cher- 
ished feelings of paternal regard, and he was much 



Il8 ADVENT AND OTHER SERM^ 

grieved at Sarah's unholy temper and unrighteous 
conduct. Not until God indicated his was 

Abraham ready to co-operate in Sarah's plans. 
There is of course a deep religious truth, a profound 
gospel mystery in these providences. This truth the 
Apostle Paul teaches when he sets before us this 
whole history as an instructive allegory. 

The Unfortunate Outcasts. 

We now see Hagar and Ishmael :a ; : out, and we 
cannot but feel that Sarah is periods, too pre- 

cipitate, and that she has acted in a manner un- 
worthy of her as a noble woman and as the wife of 
Abraham. Doctor Parker expresses the thought 
which almost all readers of this narrative have cher- 
i when he says that our first feeling is that 
Hagar and Ishmael were most cruelly used. We 
must not, however, suppose that Abraham : 
them without proper foresight as to their journey. 
God was also in the whole narrative disp: 
Hagar to go quietly ;: her own desire and Ishmael 
to yield his will to thai :: his parents. Had Hav\: 
resisted, the story- would have iegeneratod into a 
mere quarrel between jealous women. But God was 
controlling ah these eve:::- for fulfilment of his 
promise and for the establishment of his church. 
Our hearts go out in tenderness toward Hagar as 
she starts upon her lonely journey in the wilderness. 

: is left as the mistress of the home, and Hi 
goes out as a wanderer in the wilderness. Isaac is 



THE DYING LAD AND THE LIVING WELL II9 

the beloved child of promise, and Ishmael goes out 
in weakness and loneliness on his long journey and 
strange career. 

We are greatly indebted to the painters and poets 
for our conceptions of Scripture narratives. To 
Milton rather than to the Bible many are indebted 
for their conceptions of Satan, and of angels, of 
heaven, and of hell; but the painters are often 
teachers of error rather than of truth. In a famous 
painting in Dresden of the expulsion of Hagar and 
Ishmael, Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac are in the back- 
ground, and Isaac is represented as very little 
younger and smaller than Ishmael; but we know 
that Ishmael at this time was at least seventeen 
years old and about fourteen years older than Isaac. 
According to the customs of the time there really 
was no cruelty on the part of Abraham in sending 
the mother and boy out on their journey after he 
had furnished them with bread and water sufficient, 
as it was supposed, to last them until they reached 
the next well. 

Great Straits and Deliverance. 

We go out with them on their desert journey. 
They are traveling over a plain of sand and stones. 
Here and there are some scattered shrubs of thorn 
and occasional forms of other vegetation. But the 
sun burns fiercely as its rays fall on these lonely 
travelers. To be without water in a burning desert 
is a condition of indescribable misery. It is said that 



120 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

the eyes become inflamed, that the tongue and lips 
swell, that strange sounds are heard, and that the 
brain finally becomes dull and dizzy. A more per- 
fect picture of distress than that of this mother and 
son it would be difficult for us anywhere to find. 
We can well imagine the bitter cries and flowing 
tears of this heart-broken mother ; we can also hear 
the groans of the famishing boy. The hopelessness 
of the case seems to be complete. Apparently there 
is no ear to hear, no eye to pity, and no hand to 
help. Humanly speaking, their case is simply des- 
perate. They seem to have missed their way in the 
wilderness, and now burning with fever, parched 
with thirst, and apparently deserted of God and man 
they sink in despair. 

But God who feeds the ravens and who watches 
the fall of the sparrow has not forgotten this 
mother and son in their wretched condition. 
With a true mother's heart Hagar cannot bear 
to see the sufferings of her child; she therefore 
lays him groaning, panting, and dying under one 
of the shrubs, while she at the distance of a bow- 
shot sat over against him in her loneliness and sor- 
row, lifting up her face in anguish as her tears copi- 
ously fall. The angel of the Lord now appears for 
their deliverance. He directs them to a fountain 
which they had not discovered, hidden as it was by 
the brushwood. From this fountain they draw re- 
freshing draughts. They fill the water-skins and 
mother and son are graciously revived. 



the dying lad and the living well 121 

Lessons. 

From this ancient story practical lessons for daily 
life can be learned. We too are travelers over a 
desert waste. This world is not our home. There 
are times when on us, as on Hagar, the sun beats 
with scorching heat; there are times when our 
water, like hers, is spent, and when for us as for her 
there is apparently no helper. God is training us by 
these wilderness experiences. Only as we tread 
rough paths with brave hearts can we gain strength 
for noble deeds. Only as we manfully bear the cross 
can we triumphantly wear the crown. Sorrow when 
sanctified refines, ennobles, and exalts daily life. 
Trial when bravely borne develops character and 
trains us for worthy achievement. Let us never lose 
heart in life's journey. God will never leave nor 
forsake those who put their trust in him. 

We may learn as a second lesson that appropriate 
supplies are near at hand. It is evermore true that 
" man's extremity is God's opportunity." How 
glorious is it to read that " God opened her eyes and 
she saw a well of water"; how blessed to know 
that " God heard the voice of the lad." Nothing is 
said expressly of any formal prayer which Ishmael 
offered; he probably simply uttered his needs in 
sobs, in sighs, and groans. His suffering condition 
was itself a voice to the compassion of God. Many 
a prayer is only a groan. Many a voice is only a 
tear. God hears the groan and sees the tear, and 



122 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

one day those groans will be melodious music and 
those tears richest jewels in the thought of God. 
God is not dead, he is not blind, he is not deaf. 
Near Crete there was an image of Jupiter without 
ears. That was an appropriate representation of a 
heathen god ; but our God has ears to hear, a heart 
to feel, and a hand to help. There is no wilderness 
so lonely as to deprive us of his presence. Oh, no, 
Hagar, the lad will not die but live; thou thyself 
art the object of God's thought and the subject of 
God's fatherly care. With the angel of God out 
of heaven we say, " What aileth thee, Hagar, fear 
not for God hath heard the voice of the lad where 
he is." See her now lifting up the lad! See her 
gazing upon the well of water! See her giving 
the lad the inspiring draught ! Have good courage, 
O men and women, for God's well of needed sup- 
plies is near at hand! If Hagar had but looked a 
little farther she need not have cast away her boy 
in sorrow and have thrown herself down in despair. 
Help was near did she but know, had she but looked. 
Blessed is the well which furnishes supplies for our 
great temporal and spiritual need ! 

A third lesson is that for Hagar and for us the 
supply is abundant and free. There was sufficient 
for the needs of herself and her son, and for the 
needs of thousands besides. For us the water of life 
flows full and free. On the last great day of the 
feast our blessed Lord stood and cried saying, " If 
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 



THE DYING LAD AND THE LIVING WELL I23 

He was himself a well of water for every thirsty soul. 
Before the record of revelation is closed the Lord 
himself again appears saying : " And the Spirit 
and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth 
say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
whosoever will let him take the water of life freely." 
To-night as the servant of God I invite you to this 
fountain of living water. You need not die but live. 
Behold the flowing stream ; arise, drink, and rejoice. 
To your lips I now put the cup, knowing if you but 
drink of this water you shall never thirst again; 
for Christ hath said : " But whosoever drinketh of 
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; 
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a 
well of water springing up into everlasting life/' 



IX 
THE SUITOR AND MAIDEN AT THE WELL 

Text: And the damsel was very fair to look upon, . . and 
she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came 
up. — Gen. 24 : 16. 

WE have to-night a charming story of love and 
marriage in ancient times. We are much 
impressed with the deep regard which Abraham had 
to the word and promise of God in all his family 
relations. The death of Sarah gave Abraham an in- 
creased anxiety concerning the future of Isaac. 
Isaac is now forty years old, and it is surely fitting 
that the heir of the promise should be settled as the 
head of a family of his own. The chapter from 
which the passage is taken shows us how important 
the record of this marriage is in the mind of God. 
It is one of the longest chapters in the Bible, and it is 
occupied with the account of the marriage of Isaac. 
Whatever belongs to the establishment and extension 
of God's kingdom is important in God's eyes. A 
mere literary critic would condemn the Bible as a 
literary production because of the prominence given 
to an incident which he would suppose might be re- 
lated in a few words. But God's thoughts are not 
those of the ordinary literary critic. 
124 



THE SUITOR AND MAIDEN AT THE WELL 125 

In the early portion of the chapter we see Abra- 
ham binding the chief servant of his house by a 
solemn and obscure form of oath to seek a suitable 
wife for Isaac. Only once besides in the Bible is 
a similar kind of oath described; that occasion is 
where Jacob requires the same ceremony from his 
son Joseph. The history of the Hebrew people 
does not seem to indicate that this was the customary 
form of administering oaths. It is a form, however, 
which would seem to bind all future generations to 
preserve the sanctity of the oath and to strive to 
secure in actual experience the promises thus made. 
Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac 
was born, so that Abraham is now one hundred and 
forty years old. It is quite probable that the servant 
chosen for this delicate and difficult duty was 
Eliezer, although his name is not given in the con- 
nection. Abraham could not bear the thought of 
having Isaac marry any of the daughters of the 
people among whom he sojourned. They had in- 
deed been sufficiently kind to Abraham, but he must 
have been sensible of the fact that they were alien- 
ated from God. Should Isaac marry one of these 
daughters there was danger of the introduction of 
idolatry into his family. God had a definite purpose 
in giving the land to Abraham and to his posterity ; 
and should idolatry be introduced into the chosen 
family that divine purpose would seem to be over- 
ruled. Abraham was called by God to go from the 
Chaldean idolaters. Shall he now give his consent 



126 



ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



to the marriage of his son with the idolaters of 
Canaan? Should Isaac so marry the abominations 
of the heathen would be almost invited, and so 
would become inevitable. There was more likeli- 
hood that the idolatrous wife would pervert him 
than that he would convert her. A careful study of 
the narrative shows clearly that Abraham was not 
influenced by a worldly policy, for nowhere in the 
account is any reference made to riches or earthly 
honors. 

The conduct of Abraham at this point is an ad- 
mirable pattern for Christian parents. The attrac- 
tions of rank and fortune are now to many Christian 
parents irresistible. They seem willing practically to 
sell sons or daughters for filthy lucre and for social 
honor. Caleb was willing to give his daughter to 
the hero who should capture the city of Debir. His 
conduct seems at first thought to be unworthy of 
him as a father, but we see that it really was marked 
by both piety and patriotism. Many so-called Chris- 
tian parents to-day offer their daughters not to the 
man with the brave heart, strong arm, and sharp 
sword which he wishes to use for his country and 
his God, but rather to the man either with a big 
bank account, or with some faded and worthless 
foreign title. It is to be hoped that the time will 
soon come when the proudest ambition of an Ameri- 
can woman will be to become the wife of a noble 
American citizen, and the mother of worthy Ameri- 
can sons and daughters. What permanent happiness 



THE SUITOR AND MAIDEN AT THE WELL 12J 

can we expect with a husband or wife who is not in 
sympathy with God and true religion? How can 
we love truly, if we be genuine Christians, those 
who openly oppose the Lord Jesus, whom we have 
enthroned in our hearts as our Saviour and king? 

The Messenger. 

The next paragraph in the chapter, verses ten to 
fourteen, shows us the servant on his journey. 
Abraham did not wish Isaac himself to go. There 
was a possibility that if he found a wife in a distant 
country he might be disposed to make that country 
his home. The servant, as we see, takes with him 
ten camels and " all the goods of his master." 
Doubtless Abraham gave minute directions regard- 
ing the outfit and the departure of the servant. 
Sending this cavalcade was quite consonant with 
Oriental customs when an expedition of this sort 
was to be undertaken. Doubtless one purpose of an 
imposing retinue was to make a favorable impres- 
sion on the minds of the maiden's relatives ; it was 
important that they should be impressed with the 
extent of the possessions of Abraham and Isaac. 
Had the servant gone alone and taken no proofs 
of his master's wealth, it is clear that his statements 
regarding the same might be doubted. 

We know that the servant went to Mesopotamia, 
that is to say, Syria of the two rivers ; the Greek 
word signifies the country between the rivers. It is 
believed to be the region lying between the Eu- 



128 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



phrates and the Tigris. The servant made his camels 
kneel by a well of water without the city at a time 
when the women would naturally come out to draw 
water. We know that water is generally drawn in 
the cool of the evening or the morning, and that 
drawing it is one of the heavy duties usually per- 
formed by women in Eastern countries. A similar 
duty is still performed among the Arabs, and also in 
India where women, without distinction of rank, per- 
form this service. In Turkey and Persia it is said 
that only the poorer women engage in this servile 
employment. When the Bedouins pitch their tents 
but a small distance from the wells, the water is not 
brought by camels, but by women who carry it 
home on their shoulders and backs. The simple 
maidens of these patriarchal days, Eliezer well 
knew, would come to the well to draw water ; even 
the high-born damsels of the land were not above 
this kind of service. Eliezer, if he were the serv- 
ant, offers an earnest, childlike prayer that God 
would send him god-speed and would indicate to him 
the woman chosen to be the wife of Isaac. His 
prayer has become a part of classic music, and is 
beautiful whether read in the simple language of the 
Bible, or heard in the lofty strains of poetry and 
music. The choice of a wife for Isaac, who is the 
heir of promise, is a matter of greatest moment. It 
is a subject in which God is deeply interested. The 
old servant has an eye for feminine beauty ; he also 
has a practical appreciation of the other qualities 



THE SUITOR AND MAIDEN AT THE WELL I29 

desired for the wife of Isaac. He desires a woman 
of attractive appearance, one of a gentle nature, and 
one who enjoys the approval of God. 

Prayer Answered. 

Even while he is speaking the answer comes to 
his prayer. A damsel, beautiful to look upon, ap- 
proaches the well. The critical taste of the old man 
is entirely satisfied. She holds her pitcher upon her 
shoulder as she goes down to the well. It would 
seem that this well had a descending staircase. 
Wells so furnished for convenient approach are still 
known in the East. The grand well of Cairo, known 
as " Joseph's Well," is said to have a descent of one 
hundred and fifty feet by a staircase six feet wide. 
Troughs of stone or wood are sometimes found near 
the wells, but it is not uncommon to make a hollow 
in the sand, cover it with a skin, and then fill this 
sack with water. The servant approaches the beau- 
tiful maiden, and asks for water to drink. She does 
more than he asks, for she offers to give drink also 
to his camels. The servant is represented as won- 
dering and holding his peace while he gazed upon 
the maiden performing this menial service. He is 
debating whether or not the Lord has made his 
journey prosperous. Doubtless she had servants of 
her own, or employed some of his to aid her in her 
arduous task. It is to be hoped that Eliezer gave 
her a helping hand if his servants did not aid her. A 
little less wondering on his part and a little more 
1 



1 30 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

chivalry would have been quite in place. But in 
Oriental countries still men often are satisfied to 
gaze and admire while women wait and work. No 
men in the world surpass American gentlemen in 
courtesy and chivalry toward women. Doubtless 
as you ride in street cars and see men sitting while 
women are standing you may be disposed to doubt 
this remark, but I feel sure that if women oftener 
expressed appreciation for the courtesies of a seat, 
such courtesies would more frequently be extended. 
We now have Rebekah revealing herself in answer 
to the servant's questions; she is the daughter of 
Bethuel and the sister of Laban. Beautiful to look 
upon, she is also of a worthy and historic family, and 
is as charming in character as she is attractive in 
person. Knowing one of the avenues of approach to 
the female heart, the wise old servant gave her a 
golden ring and two bracelets of gold. The transla- 
tors of the common version have had great trouble 
with this ring. They call it an earring, but surely a 
present of one earring would be a strange act on 
the part of Eliezer. Without doubt the gift is a ring 
or a jewel for the nose. The gift was intended as an 
expression of appreciation for her kindness to a 
stranger, and at the same time to impress her and 
her relatives with the wealth of his master. There 
being no inns in the country the servant accepts the 
hospitality of her family. It was easy for the family 
to be cordial in their invitations when it was learned 
that this servant represented a wealthy master. We 



THE SUITOR AND MAIDEN AT THE WELL I3I 

can well imagine with what excitement Rebekah 
hastened to tell the story of that day's happenings. 
It was a suggestive, beautiful, and solemn moment 
in her life. Strange fancies are in her brain; all 
her dreams may now turn into realities. What does 
the future hold in store for her? Who is this un- 
known suitor for her hand ? Wonderful moment is 
that when a woman is asked to be a wife ! She be- 
comes when about to be a bride the queen of the 
home, and every member of the family waits to give 
her regal honors. 

Cordial Welcome. 

Abraham's servant receives a royal welcome. 
Laban, the brother of Rebekah, now appears upon 
the scene. Some have supposed that Bethuel was 
dead because Laban takes so active a part in the 
events of the hour. From what we know of Laban's 
subsequent life we can well believe that he is deeply 
impressed with the proofs of wealth of the unknown 
suitor represented by the aged servant. The camels 
are cared for and the highest acts of hospitality 
according to Eastern customs are performed for the 
aged servant and his retinue. Beautifully does the 
old servant state his errand. He declared that he 
would not eat until he had told his story. He was 
certainly a faithful steward. This charming nar- 
rative deeply impresses us with his unswerving de- 
votion to his absent master. He prefers the honor 
of that master to his own necessary food. Every 



132 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

true servant of God ought to cherish and manifest 
a similar spirit. We are the representatives of God. 
We are seeking a bride for Jesus Christ. His honor 
ought to be dearer to us than the food which per- 
ishes. David had similar feelings when he ex- 
claimed, " I will not give sleep to mine eyes nor 
slumber to mine eyelids until I find out a place for 
Jehovah, a habitation for the God of Jacob." 

We here enter on the closing portion of this inter- 
esting narrative, the account of the return of the 
servant with Rebekah and Isaac's reception of his 
bride. It is indeed a beautiful story. The evidence 
of divine providence is so marked that the family of 
Rebekah give consent to her departure. Rebekah 
herself seems to have no decision in the case, except 
as regards the time when she shall leave her home to 
be the bride of the unseen grandee ; this is the only 
instance, according to the narrative, where the exer- 
cise of her choice is permitted. Her nurse, Deborah 
by name, as we afterward learn, went with her. The 
companionship of the nurse was quite in harmony 
with the customs of that day and of our day in the 
Orient. This nurse would remain as her confi- 
dential adviser and her faithful attendant. We 
know that the nurse finally died in the service of 
her mistress. With entire harmony with the spirit 
of the times is the blessing which is given as Re- 
bekah departs, the blessing of a boundless offspring 
and power over all national enemies. 

Our thoughts are now fixed upon Isaac, who was 



THE SUITOR AND MAIDEN AT THE WELL 1 33 

at the historic well known as Beer-lahai-roi. This 
well, the well of the visible God, has already come 
before us in sacred story. For a time he was dwell- 
ing by this memorable well. Here he was waiting in 
expectation of meeting his beautiful bride, and while 
waiting there he went out into the fields at the close 
of the day to meditate on all God's dealings with 
him and his family. It was the tranquil hour of 
twilight — just the time when the soul is most dis- 
posed for quiet thought and devout contemplation. 
He could not have been in a more suitable place or 
in a more fitting frame of mind to welcome his ap- 
proaching bride. Well is it when marriage is en- 
tered into in the spirit of earnest thought and devout 
prayer. Only such marriages may expect to receive 
and to enjoy the blessing of Almighty God. There 
is little wonder that the newspapers of our day are 
filled with accounts of infelicitous marriages and of 
broken hearts when one remembers the spirit in 
which this solemn relation is so often entered. Well 
is it to recognize with the deepest earnestness that 
" a prudent wife is from the Lord." 

The Chosen Bride. 

Beautiful is the conduct of the charming Re- 
bekah as she approaches her divinely appointed hus- 
band. Isaac was walking, and it would have been a 
breach of Oriental propriety for her to remain on 
her camel while he was on foot. Doubtless the entire 
company alighted and walked to meet Isaac, taking 



134 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Rebekah into the presence of the bridegroom. It is 
customary still in the East to alight when one is 
riding if a superior approaches. With becoming 
modesty and sweetness of demeanor Rebekah covers 
herself with a veil, expressing her submission to her 
husband, and at the same time concealing the con- 
fusion which she experienced. Tender are the 
words here given regarding Isaac and his affection 
toward Rebekah — " and he loved her." It appears 
that Isaac was the only one of the patriarchs who 
had no opportunity to exercise a personal preference 
regarding the choice of his wife. He had never 
seen his bride until she stood unveiled in his tent 
as his wife. All the more appropriate therefore is 
the statement here, " and he loved her." The joy 
which he now experienced was a compensation for 
the sorrow felt in the loss of his mother. Probably 
there was no formal ceremony in connection with 
the statement, " and she became his wife/' other 
than his taking her thus in the presence of God and 
before witnesses as his divinely chosen bride. 

Lessons. 

Lessons have been suggested in the progress of 
the exposition already given, but a few more may be 
briefly named. First, we have in this chapter a 
beautiful illustration of God's providence concern- 
ing his people. This providence, according to the 
ordinary classification, is both general and special. 
Strictly speaking, however, there are no general 



THE SUITOR AND MAIDEN AT THE WELL 1 35 

providences. All God's providences are particular. 
Here we see that he cares for individuals, that he 
directs the choice of husbands and wives, and that he 
sanctifies the marriage relation. Secondly, we may 
learn to imitate Abraham's reasonable solicitude re- 
garding the selection of a wife for Isaac. Marriage 
with one of the daughters of the Canaanites might 
have blighted his whole life. It is marvelous that 
parents will so often sacrifice the comfort of sons 
and daughters on the altar of Mammon. God is too 
often left out and marriages are a matter of mere 
bargain and sale. 

Thirdly, as Abraham's servant had God's glory 
in view he expected and received divine direction. 
His prayer to God is marked by great simplicity and 
confidence. He leaves the issue with God. In all 
our ways we are to acknowledge God, and then may 
we expect that he will direct our paths. A halo of 
glory gathers around his marriage. It is mentioned 
in the prayer found in some of the prayer books, 
and frequently offered at the marriage ceremony. 
This circumstance gives a glamour of poetry and 
almost a halo of sanctity, to this historic incident. 
But it is not the most appropriate prayer for such 
an occasion. The subsequent conduct of Rebekah 
toward Isaac makes the prayer quite inappropriate. 
That conduct cannot by any reasonable interpreta- 
tion be justified. Nevertheless the meeting of 
Isaac's faithful servant and the beautiful Rebekah at 
the well will live forevermore in the world's heart. 



136 



ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



The story will always be heard as a sweet strain of 
music mingling with that of marriage-bells, and the 
gentle Rebekah meeting her chosen husband will re- 
main in the world's thought as an ideal picture of a 
modest bride sweetly and joyously giving herself to 
the man chosen of God as her husband. 



X 

STOPPED WELLS REOPENED 

Text: And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which 
they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for 
the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abra- 
ham: and he called their names after the names by which 
his father had called them. — Gen. 26 : 18. 

THIS text brings before us an interesting inci- 
dent of this olden time. We are brought into 
the society of characters whose names are familiar to 
the race as representatives of the patriarchal period. 
We live over again the simple life of that primitive 
period. We find, however, even here in this ancient 
time and in this childhood of the race the passions, 
ambitions, disappointments, and jealousies which are 
characteristic of the stirring life of our own day. 
The Philistines were jealous of Isaac. He was too 
prosperous to suit their desires. Our prosperity 
almost inevitably arouses the envy of our neighbors ; 
and envy of this character invariably proceeds to 
inflict injury. No man will be envious of you when 
everything goes badly with you, but the moment 
prosperity smiles upon you, jealousy and wrath arise 
and find place in the hearts of small-souled neigh- 
bors. Such neighbors will drag you down if they 
cannot themselves go up with you. Many business 

J 37 



I38 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

men know only too well the meaning of this envious 
spirit. Professional men have had similar experi- 
ence from those in their own profession. The min- 
istry is not free from some degree of jealousy on 
the one side, and of suffering on the other. It is 
humiliating to make this confession, but the facts 
warrant it in its strongest form. 

Fair Estimate. 

Isaac does not appear always to the best advantage 
in the chapter from which this text is taken, but we 
ought not to judge him, or other men, simply by cer- 
tain portions or chapters in their lives. Dr. Parker 
has well suggested that if we were so to judge men 
they would appear either as too good or too bad. 
No man is quite so good as he appears at certain 
times in his life, and perhaps we may say with equal 
truth that no man is quite so bad as he appears at 
certain other times in his life. Isaac was certainly 
an abominable man when he lied to the king of the 
Philistines, but when he goes out well-hunting he 
appears in a much better light, for while he was 
guilty of falsehood toward a living king he was full 
of tenderness toward the memory of his dead father. 
We ought to judge men in their entirety. We know 
that men will sometimes perform acts that are beau- 
tiful and saintly, and yet afterward these same men 
will act in a manner that is well-nigh satanic. We 
are warranted, therefore, in saying that no man is 
as bad as he sometimes seems to be, nor so good as 



STOPPED WELLS REOPENED 1 39 

at other times he seems to be. Every true Christian 
is better on the inside than on the outside; every 
unconverted man is worse on the inside than on the 
outside. Every true Christian is like the gold in 
Solomon's temple ; the farther in you went the purer 
was the gold. 

We see that Abimelech wished to drive Isaac 
away because of Isaac's prosperity, and also in order 
to secure the valuable wells which Abraham had 
digged. Isaac showed a kindly disposition in not 
fiercely resenting Abimelech's opposition. He might 
have pleaded the covenant made with his father, but 
being a man of peace he waives dispute and submis- 
sively retires " to the valley of Gerar," which terri- 
tory was either beyond the borders of Abimelech's 
possessions or at a distance from his capital. Isaac 
re-digs the wells which Abraham had digged and 
which had been filled up. We know that the filling 
up of a well was a common mode of opposing an 
enemy. A good well was a possession of immense 
value, and often in the predatory wars of those 
days it was common, in taking vengeance on ene- 
mies, to fill up the wells. The Philistines by filling 
up these wells in a time of peace were guilty of an 
act of gross violation of the usual treaties among 
tribes and nations. 

A Dutiful Son. 

Very beautifully does Isaac show his peaceful dis- 
position in digging the wells again, and his filial 



I40 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

affection in calling their names after the names given 
them by his father. Wells in many of these coun- 
tries are geographical monuments, and they are valu- 
able to the people in this respect as well as for their 
water. Wherever Abraham went he improved the 
country by the digging of wells; and wherever 
the Philistines followed him they injured the coun- 
try by destroying his improvements, and especially 
by filling up the wells. Tender thoughts, doubtless, 
came into Isaac's heart when he remembered how 
years before, his father Abraham had dug and named 
these wells. Memories of this kind would make the 
water doubly sweet to his taste ; thus filial affection 
co-operated with necessity in unstopping these wells. 
It was an act of commendable affection on his part 
to give them once more the names bestowed upon 
them by Abraham; these names were also me- 
morials of the divine favor, so that Isaac manifested 
a proper spirit toward God and toward his father in 
repeating the names which the wells formerly bore. 
Some years ago when in the Highlands of Scotland, 
at the early home of my father and mother, I took 
great pains to visit a certain spot on the shores of 
Loch Tay. Kneeling on the pebbly beach, I leaned 
forward and took full draughts of the clear and 
sparkling water of that Highland loch. Many times 
on that spot my father when a young man had 
satisfied his thirst from this water. I had often 
heard him describe the lake and the river as it 
flows through the beautiful valley until it empties 



STOPPED WELLS REOPENED I4I 

into the sea where the terrible Dundee railroad dis- 
aster occurred a few weeks before I visited the spot. 
Feelings somewhat similar to those cherished by 
Isaac were in my heart as I drank the water from 
this lake. 

A Kindly Man. 

There was on the part of Isaac marked loyalty and 
equal love toward his father. He would honor his 
father by repeating, emphasizing, and continuing the 
names which his father had given to these wells. 
He wished also to avoid all strife. He would not 
indulge in the hatred which sours the heart, distorts 
the countenance, and embitters the life. Isaac's 
name means laughter, and although the name had 
no special reference to these incidents, yet it was in 
harmony with his kindly character. It is an un- 
speakably sad thing when a man's disposition makes 
him bitter toward his fellow-men, and at the same 
time despondent and morbid toward himself and 
his family. Such a spirit takes out of the voice 
all its music, gives the hand a coldness of touch, and 
makes the entire man miserable in himself and un- 
welcome among his neighbors. Such a spirit injures 
him who cherishes it more than it hurts him against 
whom its bitterness is expended. One loves to think 
that Isaac maintained the sweetness of his dispo- 
sition amid these disappointments and exasperations. 
We see by the narrative that he had dug two wells 
and had been driven away from both of them, but 



142 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

that he still maintained gentleness of nature and 
kindness of conduct. Surely he would have been 
justified, if any one can be, in manifesting some 
righteous wrath because of the treatment he had 
received. It is unspeakably sad when men give way 
to the spirit of bitterness, to the morbidity of pessi- 
mism, and necessarily, to some degree, of infidelity. 
Weary work it was digging new wells ; but not half 
so bad in its result as cherishing the spirit of hatred 
which so many entertain to their own wretchedness, 
and which they manifest to the wretchedness of 
others. Blessed are the peacemakers ! Happy are the 
men and women of sweet tempers ! We ought to put 
down that black and hideous hatred which takes all 
that is loveliest out of our own souls and which black- 
ens all that is fairest in our Father's world. There 
are still wells enough that are beautiful even though 
some of our wells have been refilled. There are wells 
in the church, in the home, and in the heart ; from 
these let the clear and sparkling water of peace and 
good-will toward men ever flow, making music 
which is the echo of the song sung by the angels 
on the night the Christ was born. 

Wells Awaiting Reopening. 

I stand before you to-night to perform a service 
similar to that performed by Isaac in that remote 
country. There are wells which existed in the days 
of Abraham, and even in the days of Adam, which 
have been partly filled up and some of which are 



STOPPED WELLS REOPENED 143 

well-nigh stopped. It is my purpose now to name, 
and if possible, to unstop some of these wells. I 
ask you first of all to think for a little of the well of 
Revelation. This is one of the most significant 
wells ever opened up among men. Men needed a 
well opened at the throne, even at the heart of God. 
The light of nature was real light, but it was only 
twilight. It was good so far as it went, but it fell far 
short of banishing our darkness and illuminating 
our pathway. The word of God never makes little 
of the light of nature. In the Nineteenth psalm 
God's handiwork in the heavens is noted and hon- 
ored ; but when we come to the seventh verse of that 
psalm our attention is directed to the " law of the 
Lord," and we feel at once that we are standing 
upon firm ground, and that we have come into a new 
atmosphere. Thoughtful men, even among the hea- 
then — men like Socrates and Plato — who made the 
most of the light of nature, most desired fuller light 
than nature could give. God recognized this need 
and granted an abundant supply. There are men 
and women who are longing for additional light 
now, and only as they come to the Bible, the revealed 
word, and to Christ, the incarnate Word, can they 
receive the light for which their hearts long. The 
word of God comes to us as one of the richest 
blessings of our Father in heaven to the children 
of men. 

The pipes through which this water flows are 
human, but the fountain is divine. This revelation 



144 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

is not less valuable because it comes to us through 
human channels. If God is to communicate with 
men he needs men through whom the communica- 
tion can be made. The Lord Jesus, who is the in- 
carnate Word, was human as well as divine. The 
perfection of his humanity is one of the best proofs 
of his divinity. The Bible, as the revealed word, 
like the incarnate Word, is both human and divine. 
Many persons have argued as if the human element 
in the Bible exposed it to unfavorable criticism. As 
well might they object to the human element in the 
Lord Jesus. The presence of that element makes 
him and the Bible more perfect as the manifestation 
of the will of God to the children of men. Christ 
took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed 
of Abraham ; so the Bible took not on itself the char- 
acteristics of angelic writers, but of men who were 
moved upon by the Holy Ghost. 

Never was there such a fountain of revelation as 
this ; it is next to the incarnation of Christ, the fullest 
manifestation of God ever made to men. It has been 
partly stopped up. Men have said that they did not 
need a revelation from God. They have endeavored 
to dishonor the Bible and to hurl it from its high 
place among the books of the world. To-night I 
would open this well that you may drink and be re- 
freshed. Let the water flow to-night from this 
divine well, water which comes clear as crystal 
from the very throne of God. 

We shall strive also to unstop the well of Salva- 



STOPPED WELLS REOPENED I45 

tion. This well is one of the most blessed of all 
the wells ever unstopped. The word salvation is 
the sweetest word that men or angels ever heard. It 
cannot be translated into any language without im- 
parting to the word chosen to represent it something 
of its own sweetness and beauty. I am sure that 
the word makes music in heaven. But this well has 
been partially stopped. False doctrines, ecclesiastical 
rites, meaningless ceremonies, prayer books, and 
numerous creeds have well-nigh filled up this well. 
Men have talked learnedly of the councils of the 
church, but the more we know of some of them the 
less we care to know. At the Council of Nicea 
grave and reverend divines acted at times like aver- 
age city politicians at a ward caucus. Many of 
them were unworthy to represent the church of 
Christ. All creeds are simply compromises between 
truth and error. It is often far more difficult to 
interpret them than to interpret the Scriptures on 
which the creeds are supposed to be founded. The 
history of creeds shows that they are divisive rather 
than unitive. We never can have church union on 
the basis of the historic creeds. I do not wish to 
give men theological stones when they are crying 
for bread — the bread that came down from heaven. 
We need the gospel in all its simplicity, beauty, and 
fulness. 

We shall not to-night discuss the doctrine of elec- 
tion. But I stand here to say whosoever will, let 
him come and take the water of life freely. It 

K 



I46 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

has been well said that there are two words found in 
connection with the Christian life, " whosoever and 
whatsoever." Whosoever is on the outside of the 
gate showing that whether we be rich or poor, black 
or white, red or yellow, learned or ignorant, we may 
enter. Whatsoever is on the inside of the gate 
teaching us that whatsoever we ask in the Master's 
name and for our soul's good we may receive. This 
glorious well I open to-night that all may drink of 
its refreshing and blessed waters. 

I open also the well of Consolation. We have re- 
ceived salvation from God, we also need consolation 
in the many trials of life. At this moment some are 
sick, others are watching beside the sick, and still 
others are bearing other heavy burdens. Do not go 
to these burdened hearts with your cold and worldly 
maxims. Do not tell bruised souls of your phil- 
osophical remedies. The bleeding heart needs the 
healing touch which gives virtue, peace, and bene- 
diction. We read that Cicero was overwhelmed with 
grief at the death of his daughter Tullia. He loved 
her with pure and parental tenderness. In his 
sorrow he resorted to pagan philosophy for comfort ; 
he even wrote a book into which he put all the 
maxims of consolation which pagan religion and 
philosophy afforded ; but these maxims had no power 
to cure his grief. He resolved to erect in the gar- 
dens of Rome a monument to the memory of his 
daughter. Oh, if Cicero could have heard the words 
of the Lord Jesus, " Come unto me, all ye that labor 



STOPPED WELLS REOPENED I47 

and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest " ; if 
he could have heard Jesus say, " Fear not, only be- 
lieve " ; if he could have heard the wonderful Paul 
say, " All things work together for good to them 
that love God " ; if he could have heard the same 
Paul again declare that " Our light affliction which 
is but for a moment worketh for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory/' he would have 
found comfort indeed. The well of consolation 
men have endeavored to fill up with their stoicism, 
their agnosticism, their atheism ; but still their hearts 
cry out for God, for the living God. The soul can 
never find rest except in the bosom of Jesus Christ. 
I thrust in my crowbar and pry out these obstruc- 
tions. See these crystal waters flowing? This is the 
water suited to the need of every soul. Are you in 
sorrow to-night? Accept Jesus' sympathy. Cast 
your burden on the Lord. For every grief he has 
the appropriate medicine. For your death he has 
life ; for your sin he has forgiveness. Earth has no 
sorrow which heaven cannot heal. 

I unstop also the well of Sanctification. This well 
has been filled up by ungodly acts, by impure 
thoughts, and by misinterpretations of Scripture. 
Justification is a completed act; sanctification is a 
process. Often this process is long and sometimes 
painful. When we submit to God there is an in- 
stantaneous forgiveness of sin, but in the Christian 
life there may be a prolonged struggle against evil. 
Our blessed Lord in his great prayer on behalf 



I48 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

of his disciples said : " Sanctify them through thy 
truth ; thy word is truth." We have here a blessed 
grace, sanctification ; we have also a glorious instru- 
mentality, " thy word " ; and we have here also a 
blessed definition, " thy word is truth." Heaven is 
already begun in the heart of all true believers. Its 
peace is in the life, its joy on the lips, and its light 
in the face of true Christians. Drink deep from the 
well of Salvation, from the well of Consolation, and 
from the well of Sanctification. There is music in 
the word well; there is joy in the drawing of the 
water. O well-diggers, amid earthly disappoint- 
ments and ambitions, come to this water. Hear the 
word of the old prophet, " Ho, every one that thirst- 
eth, come ye to the waters " ; and hear the words of 
a greater than Isaiah, the words of the Lord Jesus 
on the great day of the feast, " If any man thirst let 
him come unto me and drink." And, still later his 
words, spoken from his throne in heaven, " And the 
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that 
heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life 
freely." 



XI 

MARAH— THE WELL OF BITTERNESS 

Text: And when they came to Marah, they could not 
drink of the waters of Mar ah, for they were bitter: there- 
fore the name of it was called Marah, etc. — Exod. 15 : 23-26. 

THE joy of the children of Israel as they stood 
on the shore of the Red Sea, recognizing their 
deliverance from Egypt and the destruction of their 
foes, was unspeakably great. Their minds were filled 
with grateful and reverential fear. Their souls were 
under the influence of a perfect delirium of joy, and 
that tumultuous joy finds expression in the triumphal 
ode of Moses. It was a song so lofty that the roll of 
the sea and the thunder of the sky would have been 
its fit accompaniment. Doctor Murphy calls atten- 
tion to the fact that nations do not need a high de- 
gree of culture in order to express in measured flow 
of winged words their joyful thanksgiving. All 
primitive tribes, whether among the Hebrews or 
Greeks, or in the Highlands of Scotland, have 
showed great skill in chanting strains of emotion in 
simple measure, but with poetic beauty and patriotic 
fervor. Primitive peoples have as instruments of 
music at least the harp and the pipe ; and these in- 
struments presuppose modulations of the human 

149 



I50 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

voice, which after all is the most wonderful of all 
instruments. The artless poetry of many primitive 
peoples has made their names immortal. Music is 
evermore the handmaid of patriotism and piety. 

We do not wonder that the sublime miracle God 
had wrought should have called forth from Moses a 
sublime song. This is one of the oldest and one of 
the noblest of triumphal odes of which we have any 
knowledge. It does not lose its honors even when 
compared with the epics of Milton, or with any of 
the grandest poems of our more modern singers. It 
burst in beauty and grandeur from the soul of Moses 
under the inspiration of the Almighty. Moses sang 
loftily without any consciousness of poetic genius, 
and without any thought of immortality. No poet of 
our day could suggest changes in thoughts or words 
which would add to the beauty of this magnificent 
ode. Moses asks no favors from the literary critics, 
even when compared with Isaiah, with Tennyson, 
with Longfellow, or with Browning. He stands in 
triumph on his own lofty peak of Parnassus. This 
song rises and falls like the sea in its grandest move- 
ments. A wonderful moment was that on the shore 
of the Red Sea. The refrain was led by Miriam, the 
leader of the choir of the women. We may well sup- 
pose that it was uttered first by a single voice, then 
all took it up until the song rolled over the mighty 
host in its divine sublimity. Miriam was well known 
for her skill in speaking to God for men, and to 
men for God. With timbrel and dance she led the 



MARAH — THE WELL OF BITTERNESS 151 

way and the other women followed. We know that 
women danced in groups by themselves and the 
men by themselves. This was a sacred dance. A 
dance was almost always a part of ancient religious 
services. Geikie tells us that even now the young 
women of Egypt greet the rising Nile with sacred 
dances, and that the Indians of the East employed 
sacred dances as a part of their worship ; so likewise 
did the Romans. The Greek Church still, in connec- 
tion with its Easter services, retains traces of this 
ancient sacred dance. The dancing dervishes of 
Turkey and Central Asia are well known. Dancing 
is closely akin to singing; indeed, it is but the ex- 
tension of the thought of beating time as now prac- 
tised among ourselves. The Hebrew word for a 
religious festival really means a circling dance. To 
hold such a dance was the privilege which Moses 
asked of Pharaoh when he sought permission for the 
people to go on a three days' journey into the 
wilderness. 

Noble Words to Lofty Music. 

The song of Moses inspired the genius of later 
poets. Indeed it is carried over into the book of 
Revelation, and those who stand on the sea of 
glass mingled with fire, harping with their harps, are 
represented as singing the song of Moses and the 
Lamb. We have in this song a fine example of 
noble words wedded to lofty music. We ought to 
make more of musical instruments in modern re- 



152 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

ligious services. The drum and fife and the trum- 
pet and cornet ought oftener to have their place in 
our solemn services. We should consecrate to God 
all instruments of music. We have been too timid 
in the introduction of the timbrel and flute and other 
instruments of music. Perhaps the Salvation Army 
may give us valuable suggestions at this point. We 
have made our services too cold, too prosaic, too 
dead. From this joyous company, chanting their 
triumphant song on the shores of the Red Sea, we 
may learn useful lessons in the religious work of 
our own day. No doubt as the waves broke upon 
the shore bearing with them horses and horsemen, 
destroyed in the Red Sea by the power of God, the 
refrain would break out still more clearly, " Sing ye 
to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the 
horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." 

Their Hardships. 

In the first place, we may notice their hardships 
as they begin their journey. They may not linger 
too long upon the shore with its oasis of greenness 
and its triumphant music. They must begin their 
journey; they must abandon for the moment their 
joyful mood and leave the flowing springs, the 
palms, the acacias, and the tamarisks. The journey 
must be renewed. We must not linger long over 
triumphs or defeats. The disciples could not build 
tabernacles on the mount of Transfiguration be- 
cause down in the valley were a poor boy and a 



MARAH — THE WELL OF BITTERNESS 153 

broken-hearted father who needed help ; so the chil- 
dren of Israel must leave the seashore and begin 
their march into the wilderness. They must leave 
the wells of Moses and tread a rough pathway under 
the scorching sun. As they begin their journey they 
experience unexpected hardships. 

The distance from the wells of Moses to Marah 
is supposed to be about forty miles. The route 
lay along the Gulf of Suez over a desert region, 
gravelly and stony by turns. For a time the host 
would see the blue waters of the gulf on their 
right hand, and on their left a mountain chain 
stretching before them as they advanced. After 
traveling a few miles they would enter an extensive 
desert plain, and now they would march under glow- 
ing skies without a cloud, and over a desert road hot 
and hard to the feet. Nothing would meet their 
gaze except perhaps a raven, a beetle, or some other 
dweller in those lonely regions. Soon high sand- 
hills near the coast would shut out the view of the 
sea, Theirs was a dismal beginning of a new 
national life. Travelers tell us that at dawn the at- 
mosphere is mild and balmy, but soon after sunrise 
the fierce heat makes traveling almost impossible, 
and at noon the eyes become blind, the skin blisters, 
and the mouth parches under the scorching sun. 
The air reflected from the barren hills comes to the 
face like a blast from a heated furnace. In such cir- 
cumstances the want of water is bitterly felt, and the 
people began to murmur. It is easy for us to con- 



154 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

demn their murmurs, and we may become sarcastic 
when we contrast the sudden change which had taken 
place. Their singing on the shore is soon changed 
to their sighing in the wilderness. As Doctor 
Hamilton expresses the thought, the Red Sea min- 
strels have become the wilderness murmurers and 
mutineers. Finely Mendelssohn in the opening pas- 
sages of his " Elijah," represented the despair of a 
whole people perishing from thirst. Their anguish 
expressed itself at first in solemn, restless murmurs, 
then it gathers terrible power, and finally it bursts 
forth in heart-rending cries of agony. 

We must, however, be considerate of the people 
as we remember their difficulties and sufferings. 
Travelers who pass over the same country to-day 
fully appreciate the sufferings of the hosts of Israel. 
These Israelites were not accustomed to this kind 
of self-discipline. They were indeed accustomed to 
hardships in Egypt, for Egypt was governed then, 
and is to some degree now, by the lash. Then it was 
not uncommon for masters even to break the bones 
of their slaves; but the children of Israel never 
were trained in self-discipline. They had not the 
opportunity of developing self-reliance, nor of cul- 
tivating individualism as they came out of Egypt as 
a mass and crossed the Red Sea in a rush. 

Their Great Disappointment. 

Let us notice, in the second place, their great dis- 
appointment. It is now near the close of the third 



MARAH — THE WELL OF BITTERNESS 1 55 

day of their weary march, and off in the distance 
they descry the rough outline of a lofty peak of 
mountains. That rugged mountain suggests cool 
glens and rippling waters ; and but for that sight they 
might have been utterly discouraged. It cheers them 
on, and forward goes that mighty, weary, panting 
host. Nearer and still nearer do they approach this 
mountain range; the outlines become more definite 
and the people see the dark verdure which indicates 
the presence of tamarisk and palm and water. Hope 
almost becomes fruition, for they well know that 
water must be near, and onward under the inspira- 
tion of this assurance they march. They have trav- 
eled about forty miles from the shore of the Red Sea. 
That distance was much greater in that day than 
in our day, as now an ambitious traveler can cover 
the distance in a day and a half, or in two days at 
most. The evening of the third day is approaching. 
Let us glance a moment at the spot which now is 
reached. Here indeed are wells. Travelers tell us 
that there are seven of these wells. One of them is 
found in a basin ten feet broad and six feet deep, 
and in that basin there is water to the depth of three 
feet. It may have been so then. How their eyes 
dance with joy as they approach ! How the lag- 
gards that have fallen into the rear begin to quicken 
their steps ! The faces of all are lighted with glad- 
ness. On they press. Their weary limbs have new 
vigor as their hearts beat high with hope. Watch 
them as they hasten their journey! Doubtless they 



I56 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

were again ready to take up the song which they 
had so gladly chanted on the shore of the Red 
Sea and say, " Sing unto the Lord for he hath 
triumphed gloriously." See them as they hasten 
to the sparkling waters. 

Now they stoop to drink, but as they touch the 
water they find it is bitter to the taste, it is poison to 
the throat; it is perhaps death to the body! It is 
" marah " — bitterness ! To the children of Israel 
especially was this bitterness dreadful. They had 
been accustomed to the sweet water of the Nile; 
and we are told that those who for a long time 
have been accustomed to that water regret nothing 
so much as its absence when they travel to dis- 
tant countries. No people in Oriental countries so 
suffer from the want of good water as do the 
present natives of Egypt. It is said that even the 
camels will not drink the waters of Marah unless 
they are especially thirsty. Man has, as have 
no other creatures, the power of adaptation 
to circumstances. He can live in frigid or torrid 
zones, and he knows how to dress according to his 
surroundings. He has elasticity and faculty of adap- 
tation, but he never can entirely overcome the sad 
effects of disappointment. Disappointment finds 
him ungirded for its presence and power. Disap- 
pointment struck home to the hearts of the dis- 
tressed people on this occasion. They had just put 
the cup to their lips; mothers had been cheering 
their children for miles on that weary march with 



MARAH — THE WELL OF BITTERNESS I $7 

the hope of refreshing water, and now neither 
mothers nor babes can touch the waters of Marah. 
Theirs was a deadly disappointment. The word 
marah has passed into all languages where the Bible 
is known as the symbol of bitterness and disappoint- 
ment. 

After all, the experience of the Israelites is but a 
symbol of our experience to-day. The world is full 
of wells of Marah. In every sphere in life disap- 
pointments and bitternesses are sure to come. God 
has his wise purposes in all these experiences. 
When our hearts turn rightly to God our wells of 
bitterness may be changed into fountains of glad- 
ness. 

Their Deliverance. 

Observe, in the third place, the deliverance ex- 
perienced by the children of Israel. We are told 
that they murmured. Did you ever think of the 
composition of the word murmur? It is simply 
mur, mur, mur, representing in the form of the word 
the sound expressive of discontent. There is no 
reason why this word should stop with two murs ; it 
might go on indefinitely multiplying syllables. 
Doubtless it often did so prolong itself. The word 
was coined from the sound made by persons in dis- 
agreeable moods. The people were especially un- 
reasonable in murmuring against Moses. What had 
Moses done? Did he have a private well from 
which he might drink? Was he not subject to the 



I58 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

inconveniences which they suffered? How was he 
to blame ? Was he God that he could open wells for 
them in the wilderness? He might have spoken to 
them in great bitterness. He might have thundered 
against them for their ingratitude and stupidity. 
He needed great patience. They whimpered like 
disappointed children. They forgot the great serv- 
ices of their heroic leader and they showed how un- 
stable human creatures can be. Their present dis- 
tress made them forget their former hallelujahs. 
An unpalatable beverage made them forget the 
glorious triumphs at the Red Sea. 

Moses here sets us an example which we may well 
follow. The people murmured against him, but he 
cried unto the Lord. They murmured: he prayed. 
It is a wonderful blessing when men in high stations 
can bring their own burdens and those of others to 
God. The people rolled their burden upon Moses ; 
he cast all his burdens upon God. One in authority, 
as was Moses, possessing this spirit, can look up to 
higher authority than human leadership. Blessed 
are you as teachers, pastors, parents, when you can 
look to God for guidance in every critical experi- 
ence! I thank God and I thank Moses for this 
blessed example. He prayed. What then? "The 
Lord showed him a tree, which he cast into the 
waters ; the waters were made sweet." 

Many questions suggest themselves at this point. 
Was this result produced by some inherent properties 
in the tree ? Was the selection of this tree arbitrary, 



MARAH — THE WELL OF BITTERNESS 1 59 

or was it miraculous? Unless we admit that there 
was some efficacy in the tree itself it is difficult to un- 
derstand why this particular tree was pointed out to 
Moses. We know that there are trees and plants 
which possess properties of this sort. The discov- 
erers of Florida found that sassafras thrown into 
stagnant waters would greatly improve their quality. 
It is said that the first use of tea on the part of the 
Chinese was to improve the waters in their ponds 
and rivers. We know that in South America there 
is a shrub called alumbre which possesses curative 
properties of this general character. It would be 
easy to give other and similar instances in other 
countries. We know also that chemical examina- 
tions prove that the bitterness of these waters is 
caused by the presence of sulphate of lime, and that 
any vegetable substance containing oxalic acid 
thrown into the waters will precipitate the lime and 
render the waters comparatively wholesome; but if 
the result was secured simply by the inherent qual- 
ities of the tree it is strange that after the lapse of 
all these years the Arabs in the vicinity are unac- 
quainted with a tree possessing such qualities. 
Granting that there was some curative power in- 
herently in the tree, we must still believe that the 
miraculous power of God was shown in guiding 
Moses to its selection and in giving it additional 
efficacy when thrown into the water. In addition to 
the healing of the water God gave the people a 
statute and revealed himself to them by a new name. 



l6o ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Lessons. 

There are a few lessons which we can learn from 
this interesting narrative. First, the way to our 
Canaan is not free from trial. Those trials came 
upon the children of Israel while in the way of duty. 
Had they wandered out of the right path we could 
more readily understand why they suffered afflic- 
tions. This law of life is illustrated in our own ex- 
perience. We have to march through an enemy's 
country. Often our pathway is rough and our 
burdens are heavy. God in this way develops char- 
acter. Virtue would be impossible if vice were not 
real. God puts the metal of true manhood into us 
by giving us fierce trials in our Christian experi- 
ence. Only thus can we develop our spiritual sinews 
and muscles. When trial is sanctified our crosses 
will be as precious as our crowns. The grandest 
lives are those that had their baptism of sorrow. 

Secondly, the true resort in disappointment and 
sorrow is prayer to God. Great triumphs are often 
followed by equally great trials; but when trials 
drive us to the feet of Jesus Christ they increase 
our strength and ennoble our lives. Disappoint- 
ments develop character. We may thank God for 
the prick of truth that drives us to the heart of 
God. Thirdly, God always has a cure near at hand. 
Perhaps there is an antidote for every bane in the 
natural world. Even poisonous plants are near cu- 
rative plants. Earth has no sorrow which heaven 



MARAH — THE WELL OF BITTERNESS l6l 

cannot heal. There is a tree now which can cure 
the world's bitterest woes. The cross of the Lord 
Jesus thrown into the marah of sin will make its 
waters pure and healing to the soul. On that tree 
the Christ of God died for the world's redemption. 
Trusting Christ light will come out of darkness, 
joy out of sorrow, and peace out of trouble. Thus 
the bitterness of earth may be changed into the 
sweetness of heaven. Evermore Marah may lead to 
Elim. 



XII 
LIVING WATERS FOR THIRSTY SOULS 

Text: If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and 
drink. — John 7 : 37. 

THESE words when spoken by our Lord pro- 
duced a profound impression on all who heard 
his voice. Some who listened affirmed to their neigh- 
bors that Jesus was the prophet to come before the 
Messiah. Others believed that he was the Messiah 
himself. A division was thus created among the 
people concerning the Christ. That division was his 
safety for the moment, as even those who were ready 
to arrest him as a blasphemer hesitated because of 
the strong party which appeared in his support. 

The temple officers sent to arrest him were so 
overcome by the majesty of his discourse that they 
returned to their masters without their prisoner. 
They were so overawed by his powerful words that 
they did not lay hands upon him ; and they had no 
reply to make to the rebuke of their superiors but to 
say, " Never man spake like this man." The Phari- 
sees in the council were shocked at the disloyalty of 
the officers who bore the commission of the court. 
They spoke sneeringly of the inability of the igno- 
rant rabble to pass judgment on these high religious 
162 



LIVING WATERS FOR THIRSTY SOULS 1 63 

questions. The voice of Nicodemus was hesitatingly 
heard in the council in defense of Jesus. He had not 
the moral courage to speak more bravely, but he 
uttered an important truth which gave pause to the 
sticklers for the law, when he affirmed that the law 
judged no man until he was fairly heard in his own 
defense. The jealous supporters of the law were 
thus shown to be breakers of the law. 

The Timely Appeal. 

The powerful appeal by our Lord on that interest- 
ing occasion has echoed through all the centuries 
since it was first uttered ; it comes down to us to-day 
with much of its original beauty and power. It is 
worthy of our most careful consideration. The ap- 
peal is powerful because of its peculiar timeliness. 
The words were uttered on the last great day of the 
feast. This was the feast of the Tabernacles, and 
was the closing feast day of the year. This eighth 
day was celebrated with special pomp and splen- 
dor. It was a day of rest from servile labor, 
and it was prophetic of the glorious Sabbath of 
the New Testament. The rabbins were accus- 
tomed to say, " Whoever has not witnessed these 
festivities has no idea of a jubilee." This feast was 
the great Jewish harvest-home; it was celebrated 
when all the fruits of the earth had been gathered. 
Within the temple its joyous character was espe- 
cially manifested. Multitudes assembled morning 
and evening and the air was rent with voices of 



164 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

thanksgiving and praise- With the pouring out of 
the water the voice of holy song rose to its most 
exultant notes. A vast procession formed around 
the fountain of Siloam, which sprang up in the in- 
terior of the temple mountain. From its flowing 
waters the priests filled a large golden pitcher. 
Leaving the fountain they climbed the steep ascent 
of Moriah, passed up the broad stairs, and entered 
the court of the temple where the altar stood. One 
priest poured the water brought from Siloam into 
one of the two silver basins placed before the altar ; 
into the other silver basin another priest poured 
wine from the pitcher which he carried. With the 
mingling of the water and the wine the multitudes 
broke forth in the most exulting and triumphant 
songs. The trumpets and cymbals sounded their 
most joyous notes; the trained choristers chanted 
with the utmost earnestness the words of Isaiah 
12 : 3, " With joy shall ye draw water out of the 
wells of salvation " ; and thousands of voices sang 
the great " Hallel," consisting of selections from 
psalms One Hundred and Thirteen to One Hundred 
and Eighteen. 

As the booths commemorated the tent-life of the 
Israelites in the wilderness, so the pouring out of 
water served to commemorate the miraculous 
springs which God opened to supply the thirst of his 
people; but our Lord gave a deeper significance to 
all these stirring ceremonies. We readily see at 
what part of the service he uttered his great invita- 



LIVING WATERS FOR THIRSTY SOULS 165 

tion. The pouring out of water was the central part 
of the service. Whatever historic significance the 
act might have ft pointed forward to the symbolic 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and to Christ himself 
as the living water and the open fountain. When 
the chanting of the " Hallel " had taken place and 
the people having given thanks, and having prayed 
that the Lord would send prosperity, silence for a 
few moments fell upon the vast multitudes. Just at 
that moment the voice of Jesus was heard through- 
out the temple uttering the words of the text. It 
was a marvelous moment. He did not interrupt the 
solemn and joyous services; for the moment they 
had ceased and silence reigned through the temple 
courts. Christ interrupted not those services, but he 
gloriously interpreted those services. He showed 
that their full significance was realized in himself 
and that he was the great Reality, symbolized by 
the splendid ritual observed on the last day of the 
feast. 

Our Lord took advantage of this great occasion 
to present himself as the Saviour, whom symbolic- 
ally they were seeking. The scene was thrilling and 
dramatic in the extreme. We criticize certain poli- 
ticians when we call them opportunists, but our 
Lord was a holy opportunist. He was, in a true 
sense, a sensational preacher. Just as Wesley and 
Whitefield took advantage of the great fairs and 
other public occasions which drew together many 
thousands, to preach the glorious gospel, so our 



1 66 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Lord took advantage of this occasion to present him- 
self as the water of life. Many preachers seem more 
anxious to save the conventionalities of the pulpit 
than to save the people — more anxious to preserve 
the traditional dignity of sermons than to redeem 
the lost lives of their hearers. Our Lord's dramatic 
address on this occasion teaches important lessons 
to preachers in our day. Many hearers want a 
preacher whose chief aim is to preserve the tradi- 
tional proprieties of the pulpit, to disturb no sinner, 
and sweetly to comfort every saint. Our Lord must 
have greatly shocked all the sticklers for the pro- 
prieties of the feast of Tabernacles when he uttered 
the glorious words of the text. 

The Earnestness of the Appeal. 

Our Lord's great earnestness adds much to the 
weight of his stirring appeal on this occasion. His 
soul was deeply moved. The honest enthusiasm of 
the multitudes in observing the temple ritual stirred 
a deeper enthusiasm in his soul for their spiritual 
welfare. He saw that they were mistaking a mere 
ceremony for true spiritual religion. His great 
earnestness is shown in the attitude he assumed and 
in the manner of his speech — he " stood and cried." 
Our Lord usually sat when teaching. But now in 
the temple in the midst of the thousands of people 
present he stood. This change of posture is not 
without significance. He wished to give unusual 
emphasis to the words which he uttered. He there- 



LIVING WATERS FOR THIRSTY SOULS 1 67 

fore not only stood but he lifted up his voice so 
that it could be heard throughout the temple, sound- 
ing far and near over the vast throng with soft 
clearness and yet with great earnestness. No one 
present could ever forget the tones of that voice 
and the message of that hour. It was a memorable 
occasion and marked a great step in advance in the 
history of our Lord's revelation of himself to the 
world. Oh, that his earnest spirit may fill the souls 
of his preachers to-day! Oh, that, as true heralds 
of the cross we may cry aloud in order to tell the 
divine message and win men to Christ ! 

Perhaps no scene in our Lord's public ministry 
is equally wondrous. Here is a subject for a painter 
of the loftiest genius. Strive to realize this scene: 
The gorgeous ritual, the impressive rites, the trained 
choristers, the symbolic pouring out of the water, 
the pealing trumpets and cymbals, the moment of 
hushed expectancy, and then the sublime figure of 
Christ standing before the people, his voice sound- 
ing through the temple courts with its matchless 
sweetness, resistless power, and divine majesty ! 

Insatiable Thirst Recognized. 

An important element in the power of our Lord's 
appeal on this occasion is seen in his wise analysis 
of human need. Christ did not need that any man 
should tell him what is in man ; he knows full well 
the insatiable thirst of the soul that is without God. 
All the circumstances of the moment combined to 



l68 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

suggest the need of thirsty souls and the supply of 
living waters. It was autumn; for months the sun 
had shone in a cloudless sky; for the early rains 
men were longing then, as they long now for the 
monsoons in India, after the burning heat of sum- 
mer. The cloudless sky and the parched earth sug- 
gested the thirst of human souls who had never 
tasted of the water of life. 

This insatiable thirst is characteristic of men in all 
countries and centuries. Without being able to in- 
terpret the longings of their own souls, men are 
really crying out after God. This is the true sig- 
nificance of every pagan rite and of every heathen 
altar. From the lowest fetish-worshiper to the build- 
ers of the altar to the unknown God on Mars Hill 
men are vaguely and vainly endeavoring to satisfy 
this insatiable thirst. Men are made for God, and 
only God can fill the human soul. All the fountains 
of earth are truly broken cisterns, which cannot 
really supply water for the soul's satisfaction. 

There is the thirst of the intellect. Men are cry- 
ing out for truth. Sometimes, with Pilate, they ask 
in sorrow rather than in sarcasm, " What is truth? " 
Never can the thirst for truth be satisfied until men 
give their hearts to Jesus Christ, who is the way, 
the truth, and the life. There is the thirst of con- 
science. A wounded conscience who can bear ! 
Conscience is a solemn word ; it comes from " con," 
together with, and " scire," to know. It means to 
know together with some one else. That other 



LIVING WATERS FOR THIRSTY SOULS 1 69 

knower is God. The atonement of Jesus Christ is 
as necessary to the satisfaction of the enlightened 
human conscience as it is to the satisfaction of 
divine justice. The wounded conscience can be 
calmed only by the cross of Christ. Until we have 
trusted in Christ as our personal Saviour, we can- 
not say with one of Shakespeare's characters, " I 
feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a 
still and quiet conscience/' 

There is also the thirst of the heart ; this only God 
can satisfy. The heart was made to love and to be 
loved. He is more or less than man who does not 
wish both to love and to be loved. But only God 
can really fill the heart with true love. Money, 
power, honor, pleasure — not anything nor everything 
this world offers can really fill our hearts, can really 
quench the thirst that burns in the human soul. 
God alone is worthy of the supreme love of the hu- 
man heart. O men and women, listen to the voice 
of Jesus. He can quench this thirst and give you the 
water of life which shall be in you a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life. 

The Promise in the Appeal. 

Our Lord proved the greatness of this masterful 
address by the promise of living water for thirsty 
souls. His voice rings out, saying : " If any man 
thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Our Lord 
here promises the living waters of God's heavenly 
grace. He virtually tells the multitudes that the 



I70 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

water they had drawn from Siloam was but a type 
of the living water which he now offers. He assures 
them that those who drink from his divine fulness 
shall themselves become living springs, blessing 
all thirsty souls whom they meet. 

This is a glorious invitation which our Lord gave 
in the midst of this magnificent festal rejoicing. It 
is a cry which resounds throughout the entire Bible. 
The eloquent and loving lips of Isaiah had sounded 
it forth : " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
the waters." In the text our divine Lord appro- 
priates distinctly to himself this glowing invitation 
of the evangelical prophet. To the woman at Jacob's 
Well our Lord said : " Whosoever drinketh of this 
water shall thirst again ; but whosoever drinketh of 
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; 
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a 
well of water springing up into everlasting life/' 
The word first translated " drinketh " in this quota- 
tion is the present participle denoting habitual ac- 
tion ; but the second word translated " drinketh/' is 
a verb, and is in the tense which in Greek is em- 
ployed of an act only once performed. We are thus 
taught that he who drinks constantly of earthly 
water shall constantly thirst, but he who drinks 
even once of divine water shall never thirst again. 

Before the volume of revelation closes the same 
sweet note is struck again in Rev. 20 : 17, " Let 
him that is athirst, come; and whosoever will, let 
him take the water of life freely." Our Lord thus 



LIVING WATERS FOR THIRSTY SOULS 171 

graciously shows his readiness to give living waters 
to thirsty souls the world over. Christ had given in 
Galilee an invitation to all that labored and were 
heavy laden to come to him for rest. In the syna- 
gogue at Capernaum he declared himself to be 
" The Bread of Life." It is true that the text, con- 
sidered in itself, does not really go beyond these 
former invitations, but they were given on private 
occasions or were addressed to provincial audiences. 
Now, however, our Lord stands conspicuously forth 
at a great festival in the sacred temple and in the 
religious metropolis of the nation ; he presents him- 
self now to the people assembled at their national 
festival, and in language of sublime simplicity, sur- 
passing majesty, and gracious entreaty he offers 
himself as the Water of Life to all thirsty souls. 
How can this universal and otherwise insatiable 
thirst be fully quenched ? From the lips of the ma- 
jestic Christ comes the answer. Let us carry his 
gracious words over the wide earth; let all the 
generations of thirsty souls hear them : " If any 
man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" 

This is a personal invitation. Our Lord invites 
us not to rites and ceremonies for the quenching 
of our spiritual thirst ; he invites us to go to himself 
as the fountain of living waters. Just at this point 
is suggested the fundamental distinction between 
Romanism and true Protestantism. Romanism 
makes the water of life dependent upon various 
forms of ecclesiastical machinery. It makes the ap- 



172 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

proach to God through a human priesthood, through 
the intercession of saints and the favor of the Virgin 
Mary. It begins with the baptism of an unconscious 
babe and ends by giving extreme unction to dying 
men and women, often as unconscious as the babe. 
True Protestantism approaches God directly and 
immediately through Jesus Christ. 

Hear, O men and women, hear the voice of Jesus 
saying to-day, " Come unto me, and drink." Thirsty 
men and women go past all rites, all ceremonies, 
all traditions, to Jesus Christ himself. Drink and 
live; then you shall know by a blessed experience 
that you shall never thirst again, and that this water 
shall be in you a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life. 



XIII 

ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH 1 

Text: He made before the house two pillars of thirty 
and five cubits high. — 2 Chron. 3 : 15. 

THIS text is part of the description of Solomon's 
glorious temple. The preparation for the 
building of this historic temple was patient, pro- 
longed, and prayerful. When completed this su- 
perb structure was one of the architectural wonders 
of the world, and in its spiritual significance it was 
also one of the great glories of the gospel church. 
At the entrance of the porch, or pronaos, as we see 
in 1 Kings 7 : 21, there stood two columns called 
Jachin and Boaz. 

These pillars were not primarily for utility, but 
their chief purpose was for ornament and as sym- 
bols of great religious truths. Their religious sig- 
nificance is suggested by the names they bore: the 
right pillar was called Jachin and the left Boaz. 
Putting the meaning of these two terms into 
two words the words are " establishment " and 
" strength." They were intended to remind all 
worshipers that God alone is the giver of all past 

1 Preached Sunday, May 14, 1905. A grateful memorial of thirty- 
five years of continuous pastoral service in Calvary Church. 

173 



174 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

mercies, and that on him men must depend for 
future blessings. 

These two pillars in their united length give us a 
height of thirty-five cubits. We may this morning 
think of these thirty-five cubits as representing the 
thirty-five years of the present pastorate. We thus 
erect a memorial to-day in honor of God who alone 
gives a church divine strength and permanent estab- 
lishment. God has been, now is, and ever shall be 
our true Jachin and Boaz. 

Memorial for Personal Blessings. 

This pastorate possesses several unusual features. 
It is with profound gratitude that mention is made 
of the fact that during this entire period the pastor 
has practically not missed a single Sunday from his 
ordinary duties because of illness. A valuable in- 
heritance from his stalwart Scotch ancestors is the 
health which has enabled him thus for so long to 
discharge his various duties without interruption. 
With the exception of the summers when he has 
made visits to foreign countries, he has not taken a 
vacation from some form of educational or religious 
work during these thirty-five years. In recent years 
he has preached or lectured almost daily at Chau- 
tauqua assemblies in many States throughout his 
entire summer holiday. 

The Calvary ministry is notable because it is the 
only pastorate of that ministry; in all probability 
there will never be another pastorate in that min- 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH 175 

istry. When the work in Calvary Church is done 
some work may be found as a " Bishop at large " 
with various parts of the country as a diocese. 

For family blessings profound gratitude is con- 
stantly experienced and is now heartily expressed. 
Because of regard for desires which are always para- 
mount, no extended reference is njade to her who 
has been all through these years the pastor's best 
assistant. In the work of all the women's societies 
as well as in every other department of church serv- 
ice, her interest has been constant, her service 
faithful, and her entire influence thoroughly salu- 
tary, sapient, and Christie. 

Many columns named Jachin and Boaz might be 
erected in memory of the kindness, forbearance, 
and magnanimity of deacons, trustees, and other 
church and Sunday-school officials. All the members 
of the church, whether official or not, have mani- 
fested a kindness out of all proportion to the worthi- 
ness of its recipient. Men who are thoroughly alive 
necessarily differ in opinion. Only dead men are 
opinionless. Immobility in place and unanimity in 
thought are apt to be inseparable neighbors; they 
especially belong to cemeteries. The unity, peace, 
harmony, and love which have always dominated 
the counsels and the methods in Calvary Church are 
worthy of the utmost emphasis and of equal com- 
mendation and imitation. This result is due in no 
small part to the existence of a judicious Advisory 
Committee. Cases of church discipline that might 



I76 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

have become painfully disruptive if brought without 
due deliberation before a church meeting have been 
settled by this committee, and the necessity of church 
action, with its attendant publicity in most cases, has 
been entirely avoided. When properly observed the 
polity of our Baptist churches has all the advantages 
of a pure democracy combined with the preservative 
blessings enjoyed by churches governed by a classis, 
a presbytery, or a bishopric. It is a thousand pities 
that all Baptist churches do not avail themselves of 
the benedictive opportunities which wisely con- 
ducted advisory committees offer. 

Great and Varied Denominational Growth. 

When this pastorate began thirty-five years ago 
the number of members in Calvary Church was two 
hundred and forty-three, of which number nineteen 
are still members; the number to-day is two thou- 
sand two hundred and twenty-three. During the 
history of the church the whole number received 
into the fellowship is five thousand three hundred 
and four, and in the last thirty-five years the number 
is four thousand five hundred and thirty-six. Twice 
goodly numbers took letters from the church to 
assist in forming new churches in hopeful fields in 
the city. Calvary is thus an " alma mater," a foster- 
ing mother, of worthy children. When this pastor- 
ate was begun thirty-five years ago, the population of 
the United States was, in round figures, thirty-eight 
millions; the number of Baptists at that time was 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH I77 

about one million five hundred thousand. The pop- 
ulation of the United States to-day is approximately 
eighty millions, and the total membership of Baptist 
churches to-day, not including several bodies of 
Christians that are Baptists, but are not in full fel- 
lowship with us, is four million six hundred thou- 
sand seven hundred and ninety-nine. This is an in- 
crease of over three million during the thirty-five 
years and about one million of that increase was 
made during the last ten years. Within the period 
of thirty-five years the population of the country 
has doubled and a small fraction over, but during 
this same period the membership in our Baptist 
churches has trebled and with more than one hun- 
dred thousand over. Ours is probably the most 
rapidly populating country on the globe; and yet 
the membership of Baptist churches is increasing 
more rapidly than the population of the country. 
Baptists have almost no growth from immigration, 
as Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and 
especially Romanists have. If the streams of im- 
migration were cut off it is likely that the Roman 
Church would barely hold its own in America. 
Baptists have grown more during the last ten years 
than either the Episcopal Church, of whose percent- 
age of growth we hear much, or the Congregational 
Church, since each was founded in America. Ten 
years ago when this pastorate had completed its 
first quarter century, carefully compiled figures* 
were given as to the condition of the Baptist denom- 

M 



I78 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

ination at that time. It will be interesting to com- 
pare the figures of to-day with those given ten 
years ago. 1 

Going back a little over a century we have figures 
and proportions of great importance. When Wash- 
ington was inaugurated, the thirteen States which 
comprised the Union had a population in round 
figures of three million seven hundred and fifty 
thousand. The whole number of Baptists at that 
time was about fifty thousand; then, as now, the 
larger number was in the South. The second table 
given 2 showing the proportion of Baptists to the 
population at different periods cannot fail to in- 
terest every citizen, to rejoice every Baptist, and to 
inspire every Christian. 

World-wide, Providential Movements, 
Making for Christianity. 

Since this pastorate was begun in 1870 a new 
world has been born. We have made enduring 

1895 1905 

1 Ordained ministers 27,090 3 2 > 2 4* 

Churches 37, 910 45,927 

Baptisms 205,857 240,936 

Total membership 3,637,421 4,600,799 

Sunday-schools 22,916 28,966 

Pupils in Sunday-schools 1,500,834 2,015,672 

Value of church property $80,285,034.00 $101,476,882.00 

Contributions to missions, edu- 
cation and Sunday-school ex- 
penses 1,138,059.00 3,223,324.80 

Total contributions ., 11,672,691,00 16,823,588.06 

2 1784 there was 1 Baptist to 94 of the population, 
1 812 there was 1 Baptist to 42 of the population, 
1840 there was 1 Baptist to 30 of the population, 
1880 there was 1 Baptist to 23 of the population, 
1890 there was 1 Baptist to 21 of the population, 
1900 there was 1 Baptist to 19 of the population, 
1905 there is 1 Baptist to 17 of the population. 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH I79 

history with astonishing rapidity. The Franco- 
German War began two months after this pastorate, 
July nineteenth, 1870, France formally declared war 
against Prussia. Napoleon III desired to strengthen 
his tottering throne by waging a successful war 
against the hereditary foe of France. Eugenie, 
stimulated by the pope and her other religious ad- 
visers, was largely responsible for this war. Regard- 
ing it, she said : " Cela c'est ma guerre! 9 This was 
indeed her war ; it was also her terrible humiliation. 
Her ignoble husband, the mere imitation of the great 
Napoleon, the painted semblance of a genuine hero, 
became a captive on September second, 1870, after 
the battle of Sedan, the Waterloo of the Second 
Empire, and Eugenie had to flee to England. She 
became a widow January 9, 1873. Her only son, 
the Prince Imperial, was killed in 1879 m the 
Zulu War. Napoleon, Eugenie, France, the pope, 
and Romanism suffered a terrible defeat, and Ger- 
many, Protestantism, and all the nobler elements of 
civilization gained a superb victory. As a result of 
this war Germany was united into one great empire. 
Italy also, so long divided, became one kingdom; 
the temporal power of the pope was forever de- 
stroyed, and Victor Emmanuel rode in triumph into 
the eternal city as king of united Italy. 

The Chino-Japanese War prepared the way for 
the Russo-Japanese War now (1905) in progress. 
In 1894 disorders prevailed in Korea. Japan made 
these disorders the ground of reviving certain old 



l80 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

claims to rights in that country. China had long 
claimed suzerainty in Korea. Japan declared war 
against China August i, 1894, and a few weeks 
later concluded an offensive and defensive alliance 
with Korea. September 18 the Chinese fleet was 
destroyed at the mouth of the Yalu River. On 
November 21 Port Arthur was taken. China was 
soon at the mercy of her victorious enemy. Pe- 
kin was in imminent danger of capture. April 17, 
1895, peace was secured by the treaty of Shimo- 
noseki. 

Russia, in placing through France in 1895 a loan 
of seventy-seven million two hundred thousand dol- 
lars to assist China in paying the indemnity to Ja- 
pan, gained what she doubtless expected would be a 
permanent foothold in China; and this fact con- 
tributed in no small part toward the uprising of the 
Boxers and the war which followed. The Spanish- 
American War in 1898 moved forward with a rapid- 
ity equaled only by its great historic importance and 
its enormous significance in relation to civil and re- 
ligious liberty. Once more Romanism and the pope 
suffered a terrible defeat ; once more civil and relig- 
ious liberty and all the distinctive principles of Amer- 
icanism and Protestantism gained immortal honor. 
Spain was driven out of the Western hemisphere. 
Once the pope gave all the New World to Portugal 
and Spain; now neither country owns a foot of 
soil in the Western hemisphere. On December 
10, 1898, the Treaty of Peace was signed between 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH l8l 

America and Spain. On February 6, 1899, it was 
ratified by the United States Senate; on March 
17 it was signed by the Queen Regent of Spain; 
on April 11 final ratifications were exchanged, and 
soon after diplomatic relations were resumed. 
The new era in American expansion was one result 
of this war. Our beloved Republic thus passed 
from boyhood into manhood, from provincialism 
into cosmopolitanism, and from continental isola- 
tion into world-wide recognition and power. Civil 
and religious liberty followed the American flag 
to Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. These 
events mark one of the great and heroic eras in 
American history. 

The South African War, 1899-1902, was a con- 
flict for supremacy in South Africa between Great 
Britain and the Boer Republics of the Transvaal 
and the Orange Free State. The war broke out 
October 11, 1899; it ended in May, 1902. On the 
part of the Boers it was the desperate resistance of 
guerilla bands against immensely superior forces. 
The final defeat of the Boers was inevitable. Care- 
ful thinkers must admit that the triumph of the 
British makes for all the best interests of all forms 
of civilization, and for the progress of the nobler 
types of Christianity. 

Distinctively Religious Achievements. 

Since this pastorate was begun, Stanley made his 
heroic journey of nine hundred and ninety-nine days 



l82 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

across Africa. He started November 12, 1874, from 
Bagamoyo, near Zanzibar, with three hundred and 
fifty-six men in his caravan; and he staggered 
into Boma, a West Coast Settlement, on August 
9, 1877, weary in body but intrepid in soul. In the 
course of seven thousand miles of travel he never 
met a Christian,, When he emerged from that conti- 
nent with the latest news of Livingston, nine-tenths 
of inner Africa were unexplored. There is now a 
chain of missions from Mombosa to the mouth of 
the Congo. A little over a century ago the Protes- 
tant missionary was excluded from the whole Ro- 
man Catholic, Greek Catholic, Buddhist, and Mo- 
hammedan world. 

When this pastorate was begun edicts were posted 
in Japan against Christianity, edicts which declared 
that if the Christian's God came to Japan he would 
pay with his head for his temerity; now religious 
liberty prevails throughout the land of the Rising 
Sun. Less than two generations ago Japan did not 
own a jinrikisha — that interesting carriage designed 
by Jonathan Goble, an American Baptist missionary ; 
now Japan has four thousand two hundred and 
thirty-seven miles of well-managed railways. Ja- 
pan and Russia are seven thousand miles apart by 
land and a still greater distance by water, and still 
they are able to wage war in a region which Japan 
can reach in four days and Russia in four weeks. 
The Latin countries have greatly lost prestige dur- 
ing the past generation; there is not a country on 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH 183 

the globe to-day dominantly Latin in blood and 
Roman in faith that is really prosperous. 

Reference has already been made to Japan; the 
country is worthy of fuller mention. The story of 
how Perry opened the country in 1 853-1 854-, how 
Townsend Harris and Lord Elgin negotiated 
treaties in 1858, is familiar. In 1868, two years be- 
fore this pastorate began, a revolution overthrew the 
Shogun and feudalism. The calendar of the Chris- 
tian world was adopted and Sunday was recognized 
as a day of rest. The march of events was rapid and 
resistless. In 1871-1873, an embassy went abroad 
to study Western institutions, and on its return it 
aroused the nation. The Rev. Dr. Guido Fridolin 
Verbeck, the learned and consecrated Dutch-Ameri- 
can missionary to Japan, was largely instrumental in 
stimulating this embassy to go on its mission. In 
1875 a deliberative assembly was formed; in 1877 
provincial representative assemblies were organ- 
ized; in 1885 the government was formed providing 
for a cabinet on European models ; in 1889 a written 
constitution was granted by the emperor, and in 
1890 the first parliament assembled. Japan thus 
rapidly passed from medievalism to modernism, 
from feudalism to an enlightened government. 

Developments Conducive to Christian" 
Progress. 

It has been suggestively said that an atlas of the 
world is now one of the best prayer books. In 



184 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Korea, long styled the " Hermit Kingdom/' Chris- 
tianity is now securing notable triumphs. Until a 
comparatively few years ago China was as tightly 
closed against the Christian missionary, except at a 
few port cities, as when in 1552 the heroic and dying 
Xavier exclaimed, " O rock, rock, when wilt thou 
open to my Master?" As late as 1857 a director 
of the East India Company declared that he " would 
rather see a band of devils in India than a group of 
missionaries/' Steamships and railways are mes- 
sengers of the cross ; electricity is the swift angel of 
the Almighty. Men in China, India, and Africa un- 
covered their heads on the same day with men in 
America when the body of President McKinley was 
laid in the grave. King William IV of Great Britain 
died in 1 837, and the news of his death did not reach 
America for thirty-five days. Queen Victoria died 
in 1901 at 2.30 p. M v and the afternoon papers in 
America contained long articles giving full details 
of the sad event. In 1859 it took one hundred and 
forty-seven days to go from New York to Shanghai ; 
the journey can now be made in twenty-five days. 
Steamships have reduced the world to one-third the 
size it was even fifty years ago, and to one-tenth the 
size it was when Carey went to India. The Cape-to- 
Cairo Railway will revolutionize the " Dark Conti- 
nent." Half the distance of this road is already 
covered. The Siberian Railway is revolutionizing 
Russia, the Orient, and the world. In 1872 Jules 
Verne published his dream entitled " Around the 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH 185 

World in Eighty Days." The idea then was utterly 
fantastic, but with the aid of the Trans-Siberian 
Railway the journey now can be comfortably made 
in thirty-three and a half days. Trains will carry us 
along the banks of the Burmese Irawadi to Bhamo 
and Mandalay. It is now very common to make the 
trip by rail from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and from Da- 
mascus, the oldest city in the world, to Beirut. A 
line will soon run from Damascus to the Moham- 
medan Mecca, and another will run through the 
heart of Asia Minor, traversing the Taurus Moun- 
tains and the Cilician valleys to Haran, where Abra- 
ham tarried, and to Nineveh where Jonah preached, 
and also to Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar made 
his famous image of gold. Electricity is a spark 
from the eternal flame. All the discoveries of mod- 
ern science are messengers of the Almighty. Wire- 
less telegraphy is changing all the methods of naval 
warfare ; it is also making it easier to believe in the 
existence of God, and in the possibility of reaching 
his ear and heart by prayer. The first quarter of 
the twentieth century will see sublimer results in 
weakening Shintoism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hindu- 
ism, Confucianism, and Mohammedanism, than 
were achieved during all the nineteenth century. 

In our enterprising era no waters are too remote 
for the steamer, and no mountains are too lofty 
for the ubiquitous railway. Experienced travelers 
tell us that it is now possible to go from Glasgow, 
Scotland, to Stanley Falls, Africa, in forty-three 



1 86 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

days. There are now forty-six steamers on the upper 
Congo, and the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science is to meet during the present year 
at Victoria Falls. It was only on January 26, 
1885, that the heroic " Chinese " Gordon was bar- 
barously murdered at Khartum, and only five 
years ago that the brave Kitchener was fighting 
there the savage hordes of the Mahdi. Now dining 
and sleeping cars safely run the five hundred and 
seventy-five miles from Cairo to Khartum. Soon 
civilization and Christianity will dominate Africa. 

We Erect To-day a Memorial of Great 
Revivals. 

The great revivals under Dwight L. Moody 
reached their highest point of efficiency and power 
during this pastorate. In 1873, accompanied by Ira 
D. Sankey, he visited Great Britain and Ireland. 
Through the preaching of the one and the singing 
of the other the British Isles were shaken by the 
mighty power of God. In 1875 he held great meet- 
ings in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Never shall we 
forget those stirring days in New York in 1876 
when Henry Varley held his meetings in the great 
Hippodrome, nor the days somewhat later when 
similar meetings were conducted under the leader- 
ship of Moody. During the period of this pastorate 
the wonderful revival among the Telugus under the 
leadership of Dr. John E. Clough occurred. In 
one day two thousand two hundred and twenty 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH 187 

were baptized, and about ten thousand during one 
year. 

It is difficult to appreciate the fact that during 
the last generation some of the greatest preachers 
the church has produced reached the zenith of their 
power and then passed to the nadir of advancing 
years, and finally to the end of life. Among these 
in America was the patriotic, heroic, valiant, and 
unique Beecher; the stately, eloquent, scholarly, 
and Chrysostomic Storrs ; the spectacular and flam- 
boyant Talmage; the massive and virile John 
Hall; the puissant, poetic, and loving William M. 
Taylor ; the genial, versatile, and beloved Armitage. 
But time would utterly fail me to speak of John A. 
Broadus, Howard Crosby, Phillips Brooks, Martin 
B. Anderson, Ezekiel G. Robinson, George Dana 
Boardman, A. J. Gordon, George Claude Lorimer, 
and a score more in America. Across the sea, not to 
mention any of the great names in Germany or 
France, or other countries beyond the Channel, we 
have the mighty Parker, the genial Stanley, the 
many-sided Farrar, the learned and eloquent Lid- 
don, the honored Temple, the illustrative and dra- 
matic Guthrie, the peerless Spurgeon, and a score 
more. 

Church Characteristics. 

The pastor has striven to be loyal to all the 
distinctive principles of the Baptist denomination ; 
and just because of this loyalty the church has been 



1 88 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

broad in her sympathies and constant in her ac- 
tivities. This church has stood for a noble human- 
ism. It has sought to show its love for God whom 
we do not see by performing practical service for 
men whom we do see. The pastor has stood up 
boldly for pure municipal politics and for loyal 
national statesmanship. He believes also in a true 
churchism, and he has constantly aimed to exalt 
the services of public worship by making them 
stately, ornate, scriptural, and reverent. Twenty 
years ago he received no little criticism because he 
wore a robe in the pulpit, and because of the tasteful 
ritual followed in Calvary Church. But some of his 
opposers of that day are now among his warmest 
supporters in both these respects. The church has 
a warm and loving heart for young and old, rich 
and poor, and an especially cordial greeting for 
strangers in New York. This pulpit has never been 
disturbed by the vigorous discussions in the secular 
and religious press, and in ecclesiastical conven- 
tions, regarding the various questions of biblical 
criticism which have so greatly agitated many 
churches and churchmen during the recent sturm 
und drang experience in theological thought. No 
discussion can really disturb the pulpit whose dom- 
inant aim is to discover and declare the truth. Such 
a pulpit is not asking questions about new theology 
or old theology, and cares nothing for either as 
such; it desires only the true theology, whether it 
be old or new. It knows that truth is the daughter 



ESTABLISHMENT AND STRENGTH 189 

of God. It cares more for truth than for its own 
prejudices, more for truth than for all human creeds, 
more for truth than for all else. Pastor and people 
now look hopefully to the future. It will be the 
aim of both to make the remaining years of this 
pastorate more fruitful in blessing than any years in 
its past. It is hoped that there will be no pause in 
the onward march, no self-complacent reliance on 
past achievements, no indulgence in guilty repose 
while the call of duty is sounding an advance. We 
can earnestly say with Browning : 

The best is yet to be, 

The last of life, for which the first was 

made. 
Our times are in His hand 
Who saith, "A whole I planned" 
Youth shows but half ; trust God : 
See all, nor be afraid. 



Thou waitest age: wait death, nor be 
afraid. 



XIV 
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL 

Text: For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the 
power of God unto salvation. — Romans i : 16. 

THESE are brave words written by a brave man. 
They stir the blood like the blast of a trumpet. 
There is in them no sense of fear or failure. The 
Apostle Paul must often have longed to be in Rome 
before the providence of God opened the way for 
his visit. This letter to the church in Rome evoked 
his noblest powers. In the preceding verses he had 
declared that he was a debtor both to Greeks and to 
barbarians; both to wise and to foolish. These 
terms are apparently used as including all Gentiles 
of whatever race or degree of culture. The apostle 
here teaches us that the guilt of men is universal, 
and so the need of the gospel is universal. 

He declares his readiness, in harmony with his 
sense of obligation, to preach the gospel in Rome 
also. He recognized the fact that Rome was then 
the mistress of the world, that her emperors were 
worshiped as deities, and that she was elated with 
pride because of her great victories and her bound- 
less possessions. It is difficult for us to overstate 
the greatness and the guiltiness of Rome as the 
190 



THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL IQl 

metropolis of the world and the seat of universal em- 
pire. Rome ruled over one hundred and twenty 
millions of people when this letter was written. The 
sides of her hills were adorned with superb villas, 
and their summits were occupied with temples, 
theaters, and palaces. Nero's " golden house " was 
the most magnificent palace known to ancient archi- 
tecture or to modern luxury. To this proud and sin- 
ful Rome Paul longed to preach the glorious gospel. 

Reasons for Absence of Shame. 

We may be well assured that he had a good 
reason for not being ashamed of the gospel ; his con- 
duct was never reasonless. In this case he clearly 
and strongly states the ground on which his de- 
cision rested, declaring that the gospel was the 
power of God unto salvation. Let us study his 
reasons, observing the characteristics of the power 
of the gospel as they are given us in this text. 

The Romans loved power. They represented 
the greatest military power then known in the 
world. The Apostle Paul, with his usual courage 
and tact, meets them on their own ground. In writ- 
ing to the Corinthians he spoke of the gospel both 
as the power and the wisdom of God, but in writing 
to the Romans he limits himself to its characteristic 
as power. The gospel is not only an example of 
divine power, but it is the sphere of God's sub- 
limest manifestation of power known among men. 
The three great nations of antiquity stood for three 



192 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

great national traits. The distinguishing feature of 
Hebrew civilization was religion; the chief char- 
acteristic of the civilization of the Greeks was art, 
poetry, literature, and philosophy; and the dom- 
inant element in Roman civilization was law, mili- 
tary power, and martial conquest. It was the grasp- 
ing power of an external government. Wherever 
the Roman armies were, marching or camping, 
there, like a mysterious presence, was the domina- 
ting power of Rome. All these facts were familiar 
to the Apostle Paul. 

He reminds the Romans that he was the repre- 
sentative of a power vastly greater than that of 
Rome. He glories in the power of the gospel. He 
speaks with a consciousness of its imperial glory 
and resistless might. Others might be ashamed of 
the gospel, but such was not his spirit. The word 
which he here uses, which is translated power, gives 
us our word " dynamite/' It is not affirmed that 
the apostle had in mind the explosive substance to 
which we give that name, but he uses the Greek 
word, which best describes the tremendous energy 
of that explosive substance. He declares that the 
gospel is " the dynamite of God." When placed 
beneath all the forms of organized evil it will as 
surely destroy them as dynamite bursts the rock 
with its resistless power. Let us rejoice in the fact 
that the gospel has not lost its primitive power. 
It is still the mightiest power known among men to 
save from self and sin, and to lead to holiness and to 



THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL I93 

heaven. When the pulpit loses its faith in the gospel 
it has lost its power. God give us unquestioning faith 
in the old and ever-new gospel of Jesus Christ ! 

The Gospel Divine Power. 

We are now prepared to advance a step; the 
gospel is not simply " power/' but it is divine power, 
"the power of God." In Psalm 62 : 11 we read 
that " power belongeth unto God." It is difficult to 
define power. In any true definition it will be 
seen that God is back of all force. In a very special 
sense, however, the gospel is the power of God. It 
is the highest and holiest channel of the divine 
power. It is the sublimest and divinest display of 
God's power known to men and to angels. The 
gospel is a divine revelation and not a human phi- 
losophy. It is both the wisdom and the power of 
God. It evokes the unceasing admiration of all 
God's true children. It utterly mystifies all agnos- 
tic thinkers. It is the object of sincere inquiry on 
the part of angels. They are represented as desir- 
ing to gaze into the mysteries of God's grace and 
the manifestations of God's love. The gospel is 
the masterpiece of the Almighty. In the gospel of 
Jesus Christ God exhausted himself. It is still to- 
day, as ever, the power of God unto salvation. 

Salvatory Power. 

It is a truly healing or saving power ; it is " the 
power of God unto salvation." Power may be de- 

N 



194 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

structive or constructive; it may be a blessing or a 
curse. The world greatly needed healing when 
Christ came into it, and when Paul wrote his 
Epistle to the Romans. At that time the Roman 
empire seemed to be in the zenith of its glory. Its 
military power was universal and it seemed likely 
to be perpetual. As a matter of fact the mighty em- 
pire had begun to decline. Over it the shadows of 
its night were falling. The days of the noble Au- 
gustus had given place to those of the despicable 
Nero. No real principle of unity but only the bond 
of external authority held together the different 
parts of the vast empire. The emperor was deified 
and men were enslaved; half the population were 
slaves. There was no true peace, even though the 
temple of Janus was closed. The old faith in Roman 
heathenism was gone, and with it went also the 
severity of Roman dignity and the valor of Roman 
patriotism. 

The culture of Greece and the East inundated 
Italy and the West; this culture utterly enervated 
the character of the earlier and sturdier Romans. 
With this culture came Oriental degeneration and 
moral degradation. The grossest vices were daily 
practised. The position of woman was one of neg- 
lect or degradation. Political integrity was un- 
known and the suggestion of commercial honesty 
evoked laughter. Proud as was the Roman citizen 
there was despair in his heart. Slaves were crucified 
for the slightest offenses or to gratify the pleasure 



THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL I95 

of onlookers. Tyranny and oppression broke the 
hearts of an otherwise brave people. Tacitus and 
Juvenal affirm that corruption festered in all ranks 
of society. The elder Pliny was filled with wonder 
at the works of creation, but he could find no pleas- 
ure in their contemplation because of the unspeak- 
able corruption of social and political life. He con- 
sidered speedy death the greatest of blessings, and 
he found it amid the poisonous fumes of Vesuvius. 
The Apostle Paul's terrific indictment in the chapter 
from which the text is taken is paralleled by the 
indignant assertions of Seneca, who compared so- 
ciety to the arena in which gladiators killed one 
another for profit. 

Into such social and political conditions came the 
gospel of Christ. The whole Roman empire was 
groaning for deliverance, all classes were crying 
out for some salutary power. The gospel came with 
divine healing in its ministrant hands and in its lov- 
ing words. It came to transform Roman and Greek 
life. The gospel was the breath of God on the dry 
bones of Roman despotism and corruption. A new 
day thus dawned in Roman history ; a divine decla- 
ration of independence was proclaimed from the 
palace of Nero to the dungeon of the slave. 

The gospel is still a healing and saving power. It 
transforms society to-day in nominally Christian 
and in utterly heathen lands. It uplifts and ennobles 
all classes and conditions of men ; it transforms 
regions of pestilential miasma into paradises of 



I96 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

moral health and beauty. It is performing miracles 
in the conversion of men to-day vastly more wonder- 
ful than any of the material miracles performed by 
Christ during his earthly life. Thank God the 
gospel is still the power of God! Nor will it ever 
lose this power if only it be proclaimed to sinners 
of every class and color throughout the world. 

The Gospel, Indiscriminative Power. 

To whom is this gospel the power of God unto 
salvation ? This is a most important question ; to it 
an inspired answer is given — " to every one that 
believeth." The words " every one " give universal- 
ity to the possession of this power, when the con- 
dition is complied with by the exercise of personal 
faith. Faith is the channel through which this 
power flows. Faith is the condition on which it is 
acquired and possessed. The terms are so simple 
that many fail to possess this power because they 
are looking for its acquisition on the ground of 
their own merits. The divine medicine will not 
cure the sinful patient, except it be taken on the 
divine condition. Faith unites us to Christ, as the 
branch is united to the vine. Faith actually makes 
us partakers of the divine nature. Faith is the 
spiritual artery of the soul ; through it the heavenly 
life blood flows. Faith is the eye by which we see 
the King in his beauty, the hand by which we lay 
hold of Christ, and the nimble foot by which we 
run in the way of his commandments. 



THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL ig7 

Without faith it is impossible to please God; 
without faith it is impossible to render helpful serv- 
ice to men. Faith is the basis of all the great com- 
mercial enterprises of the world. Every bank is 
opened each morning on faith; every check drawn 
or deposited is an illustration of faith. Faith be- 
longs to the earthly as truly as to the heavenly life. 
The mighty pyramids, erected in the various Egyp- 
tian dynasties, in Mexico, and in other countries, are 
based on faith. The glorious Parthenon, the high- 
est triumph of Greek Doric architecture, was the 
product of faith. Faith made the immortal Ther- 
mopylae and the memorable Marathon possible. 
Without faith Hannibal had not crossed the Alps, 
nor Columbus the seas. Without faith there had 
been no Magna Charta, no Bill of Rights, no French 
Revolution, and no American Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. The farmer, as truly as the preacher, 
lives by faith ; the seaman as truly as the missioner. 
Men who object to faith as a basis of action ought 
to object to all human enterprises and to all mental 
activities. Faith is one of God's divinest gifts. It 
is the divine torch, clearing up the darkness of 
doubt and illuminating the path of life. It is the 
pillar of fire which conducts the church of God 
through the wilderness of the world and into the 
land of promise and power. It is the secret of all 
heroic endeavors and sublime achievements. It 
makes unseen things seen, and the invisible God 
gloriously visible. It unlocks the treasures of grace 



I98 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

and fills the soul with the promises of God. Its 
ear is quick to hear God's voice, and its eye is 
sharper than the eagle's to see God's beckoning 
hand. The man who has no faith is a helpless 
dwarf among the heroic giants, who honor God 
and help men by their loving sympathy and their 
gentle ministry. Well may we pray " Lord evermore 
give us this faith." 

The only qualifications for the reception of the 
gospel is the exercise of faith. The Jew believed 
that he belonged, in a special sense, to God's 
peculiarly chosen people. He thus became narrow 
and exclusive, prejudiced and bigoted. All others 
were Gentiles, and little better than dogs. The 
Greek also was narrow and sectarian in his racial 
pride. To him all mankind consisted of Greeks 
and barbarians. The Apostle Paul was in a noble 
sense a cosmopolitan man. He rose above racial 
prejudice and religious bigotry. He was in the true 
sense of the word a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the 
world. His blood, birth, and training peculiarly 
fitted him for this large place in the kingdom of 
God at that critical era in its history. He found 
Christianity as the cult of a Jewish sect ; he lifted it 
to the dignity and glory of a cosmopolitan faith. 
In blood he was a Hebrew, in culture a Greek, in 
citizenship a Roman, and in faith he was a Christian. 
He was the best educated man in the college of the 
apostles, and he did more work as writer and 
preacher than all the other apostles put together. 



THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL I99 

He laid hold of the truth that Christ was not only 
the glory of his people Israel, but was also a light 
to lighten the Gentiles. But for the cosmopol- 
itanism of the Apostle Paul Christianity might long 
have remained simply the belief of a Jewish sect. 
The Apostle Paul delivered Christianity from the 
bondage of a narrow sectarianism; he lifted it into 
the glorious grandeur of a sacred cosmopolitanism, 
emancipating it from local, racial, and national 
prejudices. 

We need the heroic spirit of the matchless apostle 
at this hour. Racial prejudice and religious bigotry 
are twin relics of barbarism. In a noble Christism 
and humanism there is neither Jew nor Gentile, 
bond nor free, but a blessed oneness in Christ Jesus. 
The time has come again to ring out these whole- 
some truths, to wield once more the sword of the 
Spirit, and to declare that the old gospel is the only 
hope of this lost world. If the gospel will not save 
men their condition is utterly hopeless. But thank 
God it is still the power of God unto salvation ! 

Away, away over the rocky hills of Palestine 
went the first preachers of the gospel. The islands 
of the sparkling yEgean were the stepping-stones 
for the feet of " The sacramental host of God's 
elect/' With the cross they battered down the 
hoary evils of Greek culture and of Roman power. 
On they swept through the valleys of Germany and 
over the hilltops of Britain. Modern Europe was 
born of the gospel of Christ. Britain, mistress of 



200 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

many lands and queen of all the seas, is the child 
of the gospel, which in the sixth century was 
preached by Augustine and his monks. But for the 
gospel our fathers and we would to-day be savages, 
burning human sacrifices in the valleys of England 
and Scotland, and in other lands. How dare 
we deny the heathen nations to-day the gospel 
which has made the Anglo-Saxon so largely the 
master of the world? What the gospel did for 
Britain it is now doing for India, and it has done 
partly for Hawaii. Hawaii's beautiful salutation 
Aloha, meaning love, has caught a new significance. 
That salutation is now radiant with the glory and 
voiceful with the name of Jesus. What the gospel 
did for Britain it will do for China and its almost 
unnumbered millions. What it has done for Britain 
and America it already has done in part for heroic 
Japan. The day is coming when Japan will lead 
China, Korea, and Siam into civilization and Chris- 
tianity. 

It will then be seen more fully than is possible 
to-day, that when Jesus Christ gave the Great Com- 
mission he was the foremost thinker of the world. 
Jesus Christ, and not Socrates nor Plato, not 
Buddha nor Zoroaster; not Confucius nor Moham- 
med, taught a religion equally needed by, intended 
for, and adapted to all men of all castes, all creeds, 
all countries, and all centuries. This honor belongs 
to Jesus Christ and to his glorious gospel, which is 
the power of God unto salvation. The day is com- 



THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL 201 

ing when Japan's Banzai and Hawaii's Aloha will 
join with the Hebrew and Christian " Hallelujah/' 
with the voice of many waters as the sublime ac- 
companiment, chanting with saints and seraphs, 
angels and archangels, the triumphant chorus of a 
redeemed universe: " Hallelujah! for the Lord God 
omnipotent reigneth ! " 



XV 
STIRRING INTO FLAME GOD'S GIFTS 

Text: For which cause I put thee in remembrance that 
thou stir up (stir into flame) the gift of God, which is in 
thee through the laying on of my hands. — 2 Tim. 1 : 6. 

CLASSIC is the story of the friendship of Da- 
mon and Pythias — a friendship stronger than 
death. Equally tender and vastly more spiritual was 
the love between the aged Paul and the youthful 
Timothy. This love exercised a mellowing and 
sweetening influence on the mind and heart of the 
great apostle. It softened the impassioned vigor of 
the heroic Paul. Much in his life was truly pathetic. 
He was a homeless, wifeless, and childless man. 
The story of his sufferings, loneliness, and heroism, 
coming across centuries and continents, moves our 
hearts to-day to unwonted tenderness. He was the 
chivalrous knight of the Cross. He was the superb 
ambassador of the Christ. He lifted Christianity 
from the provincialism of a Jewish sect into the 
dignity and glory of a universal faith. He turned 
the tide of history, and gave a new trend to the 
thought of the ages. Still this indomitable man 
sweetly surrendered to the love of his youthful dis- 
ciple, the gentle Timothy. 
202 



STIRRING INTO FLAME GODS GIFTS 20.3 

We behold the apostle now in a Roman prison; 
he is awaiting the sentence of death. One after 
another of his earthly friends has disappointed his 
hopes by leaving him in his hour of need. But 
although the chain dangles from his hand, his soul 
glows with love. He utters no threnody ; he rather 
sings a paean of victory. Noble apostle! Beautiful 
disciple! Divine Christ, Lord and Master alike of 
apostle and disciple ! 

Gifts Which We are to Enliven. 

The words of the text, taken from the last letter 
of the matchless Paul, are peculiarly solemn and 
powerful. He is uttering his very soul to the heart 
of his beloved disciple. His words are a trumpet 
blast. The best men need frequent reminders of 
their duty. Timothy was naturally a timid man; 
he was also somewhat of an invalid. He was 
brought up with tender care, and he profited by 
the example of the " unfeigned faith " which dwelt 
in his mother and grandmother. Paul, with paternal 
tenderness, calls him " my own son in the faith," 
and also " my beloved son." There is, however, a 
tone of gentle rebuke in the apostle's exhortations to 
Timothy to kindle anew the flame of zeal in his soul. 

The gift which Timothy is to stir is the special 
endowment for the evangelistic work to which he 
was called ; this gift would include his capacity, zeal, 
and spirit for all his official duties. Perhaps the 
context implies that the courage of a martyr is also 



204 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

included. In the former epistle reference is made to 
the gift mentioned here, and it was there associated 
with the imposition of the hands of the presbytery. 
Here, however, it was most natural that the apostle 
should remind Timothy of his own act of imposition 
of hands, as Timothy was, in some sense, to stand in 
the apostle's place and to assume the apostle's labors. 
Doubtless both parties participated in the ordina- 
tion service. 

The Gifts We are to Enkindle. 

It is of great importance that we clearly under- 
stand what are the gifts which we are indirectly 
exhorted to enliven. We may well say that we are 
to stir up the gifts of utterance as witnesses for 
Christ. All our powers of speech will reach their 
highest development and their noblest employ- 
ment when used in testimony for Christ. When the 
heart is warm with the love of Christ the lip will be 
eloquent in praise of Christ. The tongue never knows 
its loftiest use until it chants the name of Christ. 
Too seldom do we use our powers of speech on be- 
half of him who lived and died for our redemption. 
When have you spoken a strong and loving word 
for Jesus ? Our silence must fill saints and seraphs 
with unspeakable amazement. There is no such 
theme for masterful eloquence as the love of Christ 
to men. Better that we never possessed the powers 
of speech than that we should fail to use those 
powers to tell the story Christ's redeeming love. 



STIRRING INTO FLAME GOD S GIFTS 205 

Our pens also should be employed in honoring 
Christ's name and in winning men to his service. 
When have you, men and women, written a letter 
for Jesus? Often by writing loving letters to your 
friends you can more powerfully beseech them to 
yield their hearts to God than by any other form of 
entreaty. The letter will lie upon their table making 
its mute but eloquent appeal to mind, heart, and con- 
science. Courtesy demands that the letter be an- 
swered. The answer will necessitate the probing of 
the soul. Through the moral thoughtfulness thus 
engendered God may lead many hearts to himself. 
When have you written a letter for Jesus ? Will you 
not write one to-day? The young man or woman 
who is your companion in office or shop, or your 
mate in school, might be won to Christ if you 
should write a loving letter in the Master's name. 
Kindle thus the flame of zeal on behalf of Christ 
by writing a tender, earnest letter to win some soul 
to his service. 

All forms of business ability and experience 
should be stirred up in Christ's service. God should 
be the head partner in every business firm. God 
should preside over all the Boards of Trade and all 
other great business enterprises. All business should 
be begun, continued, and ended with his approval. 
Then business enterprises become sacred. We may 
serve God as truly in the marts of trade as in the 
courts of the temple. It is as much the duty of 
some men to acquire wealth for God as it is the duty 



206 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

of other men to preach the gospel of Christ. The 
kingdom of God needs vast sums of consecrated 
money. Missions at home and abroad are languish- 
ing because God's children restrain their gifts 
for his cause. Oh, for men and women who will 
consecrate their millions on God's altar ! 

The gift of beauty and all forms of personal at- 
tractiveness may be used for God. Beauty of face, 
and especially of character, is a gift that may become 
wonderfully potent for good. Skill in music is God's 
gift, and it is a gift which may be developed to un- 
limited proportions and fully consecrated to the 
cause of Christ. There is magical power in music. 
When it fills the soul it gives kinship to angels and 
to God. All the marvels attributed to music, trem- 
bling in resistless charm from the lyre of Apollo, 
are far surpassed by the anthems of redemption, 
bursting forth from hearts aglow with the matchless 
love of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. O men 
and women, children of God and heirs of glory, 
have you not a song to sing for your King? Can 
you not sing of the Name that is above every name ? 
Shall not angels hear to-day your song as you at- 
tempt to chant the unspeakable love of your divine 
Lord and Master? We need men and women who 
will show holy ingenuity and consecrated initiative 
in the service of God. We need men who will use 
all their business skill in planning for the kingdom 
of Christ. We need the masterful talent which or- 
ganizes great corporations, which builds continental 



STIRRING INTO FLAME GOD'S GIFTS 20/ 

railways, and which subdues material kingdoms, 
to be laid on God's altar for the salvation of the 
world and for the glory of the Christ. O divine 
Christ, lay thy consecrating hand on the mighty 
brains and hearts of the kingly men who dominate 
the enterprises of the world, and use these men as 
thy glad and grateful servants to advance the king- 
dom of God on earth! 

We need to stir up the gift of prayer in the hearts 
and on the lips of all God's people. Incredible as 
it may seem it is still true that thousands in all our 
churches are both prayerless and workless. They 
have a name to live, but are practically dead. Dead 
men fill pulpits and pews alike. Not to advance 
in the Christian life is to retrograde. Not to grow 
in grace is to lose the grace once possessed. Decay 
in grace ends in the death of gifts and graces. 
Thousands in the churches are cheerless and power- 
less in their Christian lives because their gifts lie 
dormant. Faculties that are not improved are in- 
evitably impaired. All our active faculties are multi- 
plied and strengthened by use, and hopelessly weak- 
ened by disuse. Animals living in caves differ 
from their epigeous, or above-ground, allies in being 
blind; indeed, they become partially or totally eye- 
less. Thus fish in caves lose their eyes. God will 
not waste a pair of eyes on fish living in darkness. 
The arm that hangs long at our side unused will 
wither; rightly used it will increase in strength. A 
flame never roused becomes dimmed and dies. The 



208 



ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



text alludes to the fire of the temple, which was 
always to be kept burning, and it was necessary that 
it be frequently renewed that the flame might glow 
with fervid heat. 

All these principles have direct application to the 
duty of prayer. Men who will not pray partly lose 
the power to pray. They forget that God gives the 
sweetest flowers of paradise in answer to prayer. 
Prayer crowns God with honor, and his people with 
benediction. Prayerful pews make powerful pulpits. 
Prayer is the spiritual pulse of the redeemed heart. 
A prayerless life is a joyless life. Families who sit 
at their tables and eat their food without a word of 
gratitude to God are forming kinship with animals 
when they might have friendship with angels. Food 
without grace vulgarizes parents and degrades chil- 
dren. Can you not at least bow your heads in a 
silent grace before partaking of the food on your 
tables and thus assert your kinship with the noblest 
souls now on earth, as well as with those who have 
passed from earth to become exalted saints in 
heaven? O men and women, bow the knee before 
God and lift the heart to him in confession, in adora- 
tion, and in supplication. By so doing you will ex- 
perimentally understand these words of Tennyson: 



More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice 
Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
For what are men better than sheep or goats 
That nourish a blind life within the brain, 



STIRRING INTO FLAME GODS GIFTS 20g 

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
Both for themselves and those who call them friend? 
For so the whole round world is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 



Ways of Stirring up Our Gifts. 

We do much toward enlivening our gifts when 
we cherish a strong desire for their increase. The 
man who is satisfied with his attainments in the 
Christian life is not likely to make further progress. 
The Apostle Paul showed the true nobility of his 
nature when he declared that he had not already 
attained, nor was already perfect, but that forget- 
ting the things which were behind he pressed toward 
the perfect ideal as given in the life of Jesus Christ. 
The man who believes that he has reached the per- 
fect standard, reaches his conclusion, not by exalt- 
ing his life to the ideal standard, but by lowering 
the standard to his actual attainments. The ideal 
is the combination of the beauties and perfections of 
different individuals so as to form a perfect type or 
model. The Apollo Belvedere is the ideal of the 
beauty and proportion of the masculine human 
frame. But Jesus Christ is the ideal of the divine 
human life. So long as we keep that ideal before us 
and strive toward its attainment we are making 
progress in the Christian life ; the moment we think 
we have reached that ideal progress ceases. The 
statue of the Christ by Thorwaldsen, in the Metro- 
politan Church at Copenhagen, the capital of the 



2IO 



ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 



artist's native land, is the grandest and most august 
representation of Him who bore our griefs and 
carried our sorrows ever fashioned in material 
form. No hands but the artist's ever touched that 
statue. At times he despaired of ever actualizing 
his ideal. But when this glorious statue was com- 
pleted, deep melancholy settled on the soul of Thor- 
waldsen. When asked the reason he touchingly re- 
plied, " My genius is decaying ; till now my ideal 
has always been far beyond my execution ; but now 
I have attained my ideal. I shall never have a great 
idea again." The disciple will never fully attain the 
lofty ideal Christ has given the world. An ideal is 
better than a thousand ideas. Men of vision rule 
the world. The days of a church or a nation are 
numbered when men of exalted ideals and glorious 
visions are no longer found. Let us ever keep the 
perfect ideal before us that it may rightly enliven 
our gifts. 

We must also use all the opportunities presented 
to us for the exercise of our gifts in order that they 
may be greatly multiplied. Suggestive is the word 
opportunity. What is its heart meaning? It means 
literally at or before the port or harbor; it comes 
from the prefix ob, and the word portus, the port or 
harbor. We ought to be prepared to enter the open 
door when summoned by the call of duty. We 
often miss important occasions by waiting for what 
we deem greater opportunities. By faithfully per- 
forming the duties of the hour we shall transform 




STIRRING INTO FLAME GODS GIFTS 211 

apparently insignificant occasions into sublime op- 
portunities. We ought not, therefore, to wait for 
what some call great occasions, but rather to make 
ordinary occasions extraordinary by the faithful per- 
formance of their obligations. We see Disraeli at- 
tempting to make his maiden speech in the House of 
Commons with so many extravagant gestures and 
in so grandiloquent a style that he became the sub- 
ject of great ridicule. Stopping abruptly he made 
the prophetic remark, " I shall sit down now, but 
the time is coming when you will hear me." Then he 
began carefully to study the style of the most suc- 
cessful parliamentary orators. He propagated his 
political tenets in his novels, and he rose step by 
step until in 1868 he became premier. The Jewish 
novelist thus became the champion of the British 
aristocracy and the most spectacular statesman of 
the century. Though Tory in theory he was a 
Liberal in fact. His success was largely due to his 
skill as debater and orator. He developed his talents 
by making ordinary occasions extraordinary. So 
may we increase all our powers for Christ and the 
church. Give your testimony for Christ in the 
smaller circles of our young people's meeting. Em- 
brace every opportunity for stirring up your gifts, 
and greater opportunities will come. And you will 
thus grow in the grace of Christ as Lord and 
Master. It would be easy to illustrate this principle 
by reference to Demosthenes, to Webster, to Spur- 
geon, and to other great thinkers and eloquent 



212 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

speakers who by faithfulness to that which was least 
became mighty in the eyes of nations and in the 
service of humanity. 

Most of all can we best stir up our gifts by bring- 
ing them to Christ in faithful service and in earnest 
prayer that he may fully consecrate them to his 
service. There was the lad who had five barley 
loaves and two small fishes — but what were they as 
a supply for the hunger of thousands? But in 
obedience to the command of Christ about five 
thousand sat down that their hunger might be satis- 
fied. Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and the 
distribution to the disciples began. On went the dis- 
ciples giving to the hungry multitudes, and still the 
supply continued, and still the distribution pro- 
ceeded. The thousands were satisfied, and twelve 
baskets were filled with the fragments that remained. 
When the consecrating touch of Christ comes on 
our gifts and services, however few and feeble they 
may be in themselves, they are made many and 
mighty for blessing men and for honoring God. 

Reasons for Stirring Up Our Gifts. 

We ought to stir up our gifts because of the 
solemn obligations under which we are placed. We 
should be duteous disciples. A noble watchword is 
duty. What is duty ? It is simply that which is due, 
that which is due to ourselves, to our fellow-men, 
and to God. Once the word was spelled " duety." 
We are under the most solemn obligations to make 



STIRRING INTO FLAME GOD S GIFTS 213 

the most of ourselves both for the time that now is 
and for that which is to come. No man has a right 
to be physically, intellectually, or morally a dwarf, 
when he might be in all three respects somewhat of 
a giant. We ought to enter the kingdom of heaven 
above full-grown men and women ; we ought not to 
be barely saved, but to enter through the gates with 
an abundant salvation. We are under solemn obli- 
gations also to our fellow-men. We are, in a very 
real sense, our brother's keeper. Often we can best 
show our love to God, whom we have not seen, by 
doing service to our brother whom we do see. 

We ought also to stir up our gifts because of the 
wonderful opportunities of the hour. We are living 
in the most glorious age in the history of the race. 
Opportunities for service abound as never before. 
The discoveries of modern science enable us to mul- 
tiply ourselves in the service of men as was impos- 
sible even a generation ago. Steamships and rail- 
ways, telegraphs, telephones, and especially wireless 
telegraphy are transforming the world. They make 
it a whispering gallery which we may make vocal 
with God's love and resplendent with God's glory. 
A grander day is speedily coming, a day of millen- 
nial blessing to all classes and conditions of men. 
We may hopefully sing with Burns : 

For a' that, and a' that, 

It's comm' yet, for a' that, 
That man to man, the warld o'er, 

Shall brithers be, for a' that. 



214 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Especially ought we to enkindle the flame of our 
zeal into a fervid glow under the inspiration of 
gratitude to our divine Lord and Master. Christ 
has loved us with an everlasing love and redeemed 
us with an eternal salvation. We must have stones, 
and not hearts, in our bosoms if we do not love him 
for his unspeakable love in his life and death on our 
behalf. In loving God and in serving men we best 
show our gratitude to our divine Lord. Ingratitude 
toward Jesus Christ is one of the most hateful of 
sins. Well might Shakespeare in King Lear speak 
of ingratitude as the marble-hearted fiend, more 
hideous than the sea-monster; and further say: 

Sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
To have a thankless child. 

O come this morning to Calvary ! Gaze upon Him 
who was " nailed for our advantage on the bitter 
cross/' Behold his regal brow crowned with thorns. 
Hear his dying words. Then let love, glowing, con- 
suming heavenly love, fill your souls. Under the in- 
spiration of this love, go out to win men to God. 
Thus will the flame be enkindled, the life ennobled, 
and the whole being be so filled with Christ and his 
love that earth will be a foretaste of heaven. Thus 
heaven will be vastly sublimer and diviner when, 
with our increased, ennobled, and divinized gifts 
and graces we cast our crowns at the Master's feet 
and fill heaven's lofty dome with our songs of praise 
to Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King. 






XVI 
EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 

Text: Suffer me first. — Luke p : 5g. 

CHRIST was the absolutely accurate analyst of 
the character of all whom he met. He needed 
not that any one should tell him anything about those 
with whom he came in contact, for he knew what was 
in man. In this respect he is the unique Personality in 
the human race. Three men, two of them on their 
own motion, and one of them by Christ's invitation, 
were seekers after him. The first was enthusiastic, 
impulsive, and somewhat unreflecting. In this spirit 
he declared his willingness to follow the Master ; but 
Jesus would have him count the cost, affirming that, 
unlike the foxes which have holes, and the birds that 
have nests, the Son of man had not where to lay his 
head. The second candidate was called by the Mas- 
ter to be a disciple. He excused himself, saying, 
" Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father/' 
If his father were still living this request meant that 
he desired to remain with and care for his father 
until he should die. If his father were actually dead, 
the request meant that following Jesus would be 
postponed until the expiration of the seven days of 
lamentation before burial, or to the end of the year 

215 



2l6 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

of mourning after burial. Our Lord did not make 
light of the solemn duty of honoring parents. But 
he saw that this man put a condition on obeying the 
divine command ; he saw that the excuse was indic- 
ative of a divided heart instead of one wholly given 
to the service of the Master. Duty to a father must 
not be put before duty to God. Nothing must be per- 
mitted, however sacred in itself, to come between us 
and our duty to God. This second candidate for dis- 
cipleship needed this rebuke which our Lord so faith- 
fully administered. The third candidate for dis- 
cipleship was also a volunteer, but he wished first 
to bid farewell to those in his home. Elisha, when 
called by Elijah from the plow, preferred a similar 
request. But Elisha was firm and determined in his 
purpose; his request was therefore granted. This 
candidate was fickle and wavering in his resolution ; 
his request was therefore denied. No man, putting 
his hand to the plow, must look back; even look- 
ing back shows unfitness for the kingdom of God. 
Many persons are apparently well disposed toward 
Christ, but they do not recognize the supreme im- 
portance of his claims. 

The Claims of Business and Pleasure. 

There are those who say : " Suffer us first to at- 
tend to some pressing matter of business." No 
word of mine will be spoken to depreciate the im- 
portance, in their rightful place, of the claims of 
business or other earthly engagements. We are ex- 



EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 2\*J 

known in his service of God perils by land and by 
sea, and persecutions bitter and prolonged, exhorts 
us to " Rejoice evermore." Religion is sunshine, 
hope, peace, love, and joy. It is a well of water 
within us, springing up into everlasting life. It 
gives a silver lining to every cloud. It gives ability 
in business, a charm in social life, fitness for artistic 
culture, and a unique glory to all earthly experi- 
ences. It alone makes life worth living. If you 
would know the highest pleasure possible this side 
of heaven, give your heart unreservedly to God and 
repose trustingly on his precious promises. 

More Feeling. 

Again, there are those who say, " Suffer us first 
to have more and better feeling and then we will 
follow Christ." Language of this character Chris- 
tian workers constantly hear. Such language 
greatly tries their patience. Waiting for more and 
better feeling before beginning the service of Christ 
is one of the deadliest delusions of Satan. Our 
union with Christ is not dependent upon frames and 
feelings. The man who trusts in his feelings and 
not in Christ dishonors religion and deprives himself 
of its richest blessings. Such a man is exalted to 
heaven to-day and depressed to hades to-morrow ; 
such a man's religion is dependent upon his dinner 
and his digestion rather than on his faith and his 
Lord ; such a man is building upon the shifting sand. 
We never read in Scripture, " therefore, being justi- 



2l8 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

ture. The man who makes his business his God is 
an abominable idolater. Such a man will fare worse 
standing before Christ's judgment-seat than the 
heathen who never heard of Christ and his love. 

Again, there are those who say, " Suffer us first 
to have more of this world's pleasure and then we 
will seek God." The men and women who so say 
are the devil's dupes. They assume that religion is 
synonymous with gloom. No assumption could pos- 
sibly be farther from the truth. There may be 
gloomy, melancholy, dismal, and morose Christians. 
Their long faces, sullen looks, and gloomy words 
are not because of but in spite of such true religion 
as they possess. What is there in true religion to 
make a man gloomy? Does the knowledge that a 
man's sins are forgiven, that he is at peace with 
God, with himself, and with his fellow-men, that all 
things will work together for good to him on earth, 
and that he will enjoy eternal felicity in heaven, 
tend to make life here and now an experience of 
sadness and gloom? I have known the presence of 
true religion to give sadness, but I have known its 
absence to make life a foretaste of perdition. I have 
heard men on beds of sickness, when death stared 
them in the face, calling in fearful agony upon God 
for mercy. 

Religion is the synonym of joy. The psalmist, 
who had wandered from God and was now seeking 
his face, earnestly prayed, " Restore unto me the 
joy of thy salvation." The Apostle Paul, who had 



EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 219 

horted to be diligent in business, while we are fer- 
vent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rightly understood, 
there is no conflict between the claims of legitimate 
business and the duties of following Christ. Both 
are important and solemn obligations. They ought, 
however, to be considered and performed in their 
true order. In his great Sermon on the Mount our 
Lord distinctly commanded us to " Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness." All other 
things should be subordinate to this aim. No man 
has a right to put the claims even of the noblest 
business between him and his duty to his God. 
When he so does he degrades his business, dishonors 
himself, and disobeys his Lord. No legitimate busi- 
ness is injured by our service of God. If a man can- 
not take his religion into his business he must have 
a very poor religion or a very bad business — prob- 
ably he has both. 

Many of the merchant princes in the great com- 
mercial world to-day, as well as the foremost 
lawyers, physicians, artists, and scholars of the 
world, are as distinguished for the lowliness and sin- 
cerity of their religion as they are for the loftiness 
of their attainments and the nobility of their char- 
acter. No man familiar with the facts will deny that 
the foremost thinkers of to-day in almost all depart- 
ments of thought and activity are on the side of 
Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is not too much to say that 
except a man be religious he cannot have true no- 
bility and complete symmetry of character and cul- 



220 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

fied by feeling we have peace with God," but we do 
read, " being therefore justified by faith we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
We should stand by faith, not by feeling; live by 
faith, not by feeling, and hold fast the profession of 
our faith, not the selfish and often nauseous confes- 
sion of our feeling. One often wishes when he sees 
its hindrance that the word feeling were stricken out 
of our religious vocabulary. 

What is it to be a Christian? A Christian is one 
who believes in Jesus Christ as personal Lord and 
Saviour. He is a man who studies to follow the ex- 
ample and obey the precepts of Jesus Christ. He is 
one who follows Christ no matter how he feels. He 
obeys Christ whether he feels like it or not. What 
has feeling to do with his faith ? He is anchored to 
the Eternal Rock, Christ Jesus, and not to the shift- 
ing sands of personal feeling. I came the other day 
from Washington to New York on the Pennsylvania 
Railway. At the Broad Street Station, Philadel- 
phia, all the seats were turned over before the train 
resumed its journey. Until I neared Jersey City my 
" feeling " was that I was going toward Washing- 
ton and not toward New York. But what had my 
feeling to do with the running of the engine? It 
sped grandly on, and soon it rolled into the station 
at Jersey City. Had I been as foolish in travel as 
many men are in religion, I would have gotten off 
that train and waited until my feeling indicated that 
I was going toward New York. Had I done so I 



EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 221 

probably would be waiting still at some station for 
this " feeling." 

Obey Christ no matter how you feel. If right feel- 
ing comes from obedience, accept it and rejoice in 
it ; but do not wait for it. Move right on in the line 
of obedience with or without feeling. Do not wait 
for deeper convictions of sin. It is Christ who 
saves and not the sense of sin. If there is convic- 
tion of sin enough to drive you to Christ as your 
Saviour, you will assuredly be saved. Wait neither 
for the agonizing convictions of sin, nor for the 
ecstatic joys of faith of which you have heard some 
persons speak. Act on your judgment like calm, 
sensible, intelligent men and women. Obey Christ 
first, last, and always, and rest assured that right 
feeling will come. 

Waiting for Knowledge. 

There are those who refuse to follow Christ, say- 
ing : " Suffer us first to know more of Christ's doc- 
trine." It certainly is commendable to desire to 
know more of the teaching or doctrine of our divine 
Lord. But how shall we know more of that doc- 
trine? Is that doctrine likely to be learned by us 
while we are living in disobedience and even in open 
rebellion to Jesus Christ? He himself said with 
marked profundity of wisdom, " If any man will- 
eth to do his will he shall know of the teaching, 
whether it is of God or whether I speak from my- 
self." We have in this passage the formulation of 



222 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

a universal law. In no other way is it possible to get 
an experimental knowledge of Christ's doctrine. 
Obedience to the Divine Will is necessary to knowl- 
edge of divine truth. This law applies equally to 
the acquisition of all kinds of knowledge. The stu- 
dent of science must possess the scientific spirit; he 
must submit to the laws by which scientific knowl- 
edge is acquired. If he will not so submit he may 
become a sciolist, but never a scientist. The same 
law applies to the study of music, of art, of litera- 
ture, and of knowledge of every kind. If you would 
learn Christ's doctrine you must go to Christ's 
school. He who would walk the lofty heights of 
true knowledge must sit long in lowly obedience at 
the feet of Jesus Christ, the world's great Teacher. 
There are profound mysteries and difficult prob- 
lems at present unsolved and unsolvable in the Bible. 
If the Bible is a revelation from God, we must ex- 
pect it to contain truths above our present appre- 
hension. A Bible which all could fully understand 
in all its parts we could not receive as God's final 
revelation. Wherever the finite and the infinite 
come into contact, insoluble problems arise. The 
difficulty is not so much in the divine revelation as 
it is in our imperfect human apprehension. We ad- 
mit that many things in the Bible are above our 
reason in its present stage of development. But our 
reason is not the measure of the highest reason. 
There are probably intelligences so far above us 
that what is inscrutable to us may be to them thor- 



EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 223 

oughly understandable. The book of nature, as 
well as the volume of revelation, is mysterious. No 
one can really explain the essence of matter. We 
can divide matter into three kinds or classes, but 
when asked to define matter the wise man will re- 
main silent, or speak with great caution. Many 
things in the Bible which were once inexplicable are 
now thoroughly understood. Many things which 
are inexplicable to-day will be explicable to-morrow. 
It is evermore true that additional light is to break 
forth from God's word. 

But is it fair to speak as if the Bible consisted for 
the most part of contradictions, conundrums, and 
difficulties ? Is it quite honest even to imply that the 
Bible is chiefly of this character? Are there not in 
it great and blessed truths which are as simple as 
they are sublime ? Augustine long ago affirmed that 
if the Bible has depths in which an elephant can 
swim, it also has shallows in which a lamb can wade. 
It is a lamp for simple men, rather than a puzzle 
for learned students. Could anything be simpler 
than such words as these, " Come unto me all ye 
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest " ; " For God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have eternal life " ; " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 
Could any man ask for plainer truths than these? 
When a man comes to me affirming that he refuses 
to accept Christ because there are things in the 



224 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Bible which he cannot understand, I have a right to 
ask him, " Have you obeyed all the commands in the 
Bible which you do understand? " Why should a 
man trouble himself about the meaning of additional 
commands when he refuses to obey those whose 
meaning is thoroughly clear ? Why can we not have 
common sense in religion as we do in matters of 
daily business? A man does not refuse to ride on 
trolley cars because he does not understand elec- 
tricity. He does not refuse to cross the ocean be- 
cause there are a thousand things in navigation of 
which he is ignorant. Why should a man choke 
himself with bones when there is more good and 
boneless meat than he can possibly eat? Come just 
now and just as your are into Christ's school. Be- 
gin at once the Christian life. Do not wait with the 
fear that you may not hold out. Trust yourself 
fully to Christ and he will keep you by his divine 
grace and by his almighty power, and will give you 
at last the crown of victory. 

Hypocrites in the Church. 

There are also those who say, " Suffer us first to 
be sure that all professing Christians are not hypo- 
crites. " There are men and women who are ready 
to affirm that all professing Christians are hypo- 
crites. Is this affirmation true? This is a question 
of fact ; it ought to be decided as other questions of 
fact are decided. It is interesting to know what was 
Christ's opinion of his immediate disciples, and it is 



EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 225 

quite safe to affirm that his opinion of Christians to- 
day does not differ widely from his opinion of the 
disciples in that early day. Of the disciples who 
gathered about him, Christ said, " Ye are the salt 
of the earth." Nothing is more certain than that this 
divine salt has not lost its savor; nothing is more 
certain than that this heavenly preservative will 
never lose its savor. It may be that the world has 
owed its preservation many times and in many 
places to the presence of God's people. He who 
knew the hearts of all men said with marked em- 
phasis, as the original shows, " Ye are the light of 
the world." Elsewhere Jesus declares that he him- 
self is the light of the world; here he gives that 
honor in part to his disciples. We are, of course, 
to understand that the light which Christians emit 
is really derived from Christ himself, who is the 
light. They are thus as a city set on a hill, which 
cannot be hid from the eyes of the world. 

The church is a school for imperfect men and 
women who are striving to overcome their imper- 
fections. It is not, when rightly viewed, the home 
of self-complacent souls who believe that they have 
already attained, and are already perfect. The true 
idea of sainthood is a struggle toward loftier attain- 
ment. Thus the Apostle Paul affirmed that he forgot 
the things that were behind and pressed toward the 
mark of the heavenly calling. I affirm, without fear 
of successful contradiction, that the noblest men and 
the truest women beneath the stars are found in the 
p 



226 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

Church of Jesus Christ ; but, noble as they are, they 
will be vastly nobler when their Christian character 
has attained its complete symmetry. They are pro- 
gressing toward perfection as a portrait progresses 
toward completion in the hands of an artist. Like 
such a portrait when the artist begins his work, 
Christians at the beginning of their Christian lives 
are simply outline sketches. The Divine Artist will 
fill up this sketch with the lines and colors of a com- 
plete character. Joys and sorrows, disappointments 
and achievements will soften or deepen the lines, 
and will heighten or subdue the colors. The light 
of eternity will one day fall upon the work. The 
Christian will see his Lord face to face, and the 
glorious vision will completely change the human 
form into the divine image. 

All sensible men know that we are not saved by 
the goodness of other men. How, then, can any 
man expect to be saved by the badness of other 
people? In answer to all men's criticisms of Chris- 
tians, as if the faults of the one were exculpatory 
for the abominable and inexcusable sin of rejecting 
Christ on the part of the other, he says to each 
one, " What is that to thee ? Follow thou me." 
Why do you not follow him? This is your per- 
sonal and eternal duty. You stand alone in his 
sight. Alone you must die; alone you must stand 
at the judgment-seat of Christ. I beseech you now 
by all that is noble in manhood, sacred in woman- 
hood, and solemn in duty to serve God. If the church 



EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 227 

were perfect you may rest assured that you would 
not be received into its membership, for you are far 
from perfection. But you may begin now to be an 
imperfect Christian, and thus following Christ 
through evil and good report, one day the crown of 
glory shall be placed upon your brow. 

Waiting God's Time. 

Here is a man who says, " I will follow Christ, but 
suffer me first to bide God's time before beginning 
the service.'' It is well always and in all things to 
await God's time, but we must wait God's time in 
God's way. Lurking under the general idea of bi- 
ding God's time is the objection to the doctrine of 
election. Little is heard of this doctrine in our day 
compared with the numerous sermons once preached 
on various phases of this subject. The doctrine of 
predestination is immeasurable in compass and in- 
finite in depth. But a soul seeking Christ has noth- 
ing whatever to do with the profound depths and 
lofty heights of this great doctrine. When a man 
says, " I would follow Christ if I knew I was one of 
the elect," he is taking a position in religion which 
he utterly repudiates in temporal affairs. And yet 
men talk in this way regarding the acceptance of the 
salvation of Jesus Christ. A man has fallen over- 
board ; a rope is thrown him, but he refuses to grasp 
the rope, saying " I do not know whether I am pre- 
destined to be saved." We can certainly say to such 
a man, " If you do not grasp this rope you are cer- 



228 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

tainly predestined to be drowned because of your 
unspeakable foolishness." The word of God says: 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." 

Why can we not have common sense in religion? 
It is a thousand pities that we have used the word 
" rationalism " to describe a system of thought which 
teaches that religion is, in some sense, divorced from 
reason. Doubtless, historically the word " rational- 
ism " has been employed by men who are opposed 
to the supernatural in revelation and religion ; but 
the word ought to be rescued from this abuse. 
Rightly understood, reason is the handmaid of re- 
ligion. The Bible distinctly appeals to our reason, 
God saying, " Come now, let us reason together." 
It is irreligion that is irrational. It is true that with 
our present development of reason we cannot recon- 
cile human freedom and divine sovereignty. I am 
free and consciousness so affirms. God is a sover- 
eign, and revelation and history so affirm. Reconcile 
these two truths I cannot ; believe them I must. Hu- 
man freedom is a column rising into the clouds, 
and divine sovereignty is another such column; but 
beyond the clouds these columns curve toward each 
other until they meet in a perfect arch. 

By all means let us bide God's time. But what is 
God's time ? We are not left in doubt at this point, 
for the word of God has spoken : " Behold, now 
is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salva- 
tion." To-day alone is ours ; strictly speaking, there 



EXCUSES FOR PROCRASTINATION 229 

is no to-morrow. The Spanish proverb says : " The 
road ' To-morrow ' leads to the town ' Never/ " 
Young has well said that " procrastination is the 
thief of time/' but it is vastly more and worse than 
that ; it is the destroyer of immortal souls. The day 
will come when the Master of the house shall have 
risen and closed the door. But it is still the day of 
grace, the hour of mercy, and the accepted time. 
Seek the Lord now while he may be found, call upon 
him while he is near, and you shall be saved with an 
everlasting salvation, beginning on earth and reach- 
ing its ineffable glory in Christ's immediate presence 
in heaven. 



XVII 
NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE 

Text: But they which are written in the Lamb's book 
of life. — Rev. 21 : 27. 

WE have in this text and context some exquisite 
touches in the picture of heaven, painted by 
the Apostle John during the ecstatic exaltation ex- 
perienced by him while on Patmos, a bare and rocky 
island of the .Egean Sea. Our attention is directed 
to the twelve gates of pearl, to the streets of gold, 
and especially to the fact that in that celestial and 
holy city was no building set apart as a temple. 
That fact is worthy of particular notice, and of 
special emphasis. It is most suggestive that there 
was no separate place where God was adored. The 
heavenly Jerusalem was not like the earthly Jeru- 
salem ; in the latter there was one building peculiarly 
consecrated to the worship of the Almighty. In this 
heavenly city, the entire place was one great temple. 
Worship, praise, and adoration ascended to God 
from all parts of that city ; there God and the Lamb, 
in their celestial glory and splendor were the light. 
There was thus no need of the sun, nor of the moon, 
for the glory of the Lord, in its sublime effulgence, 
filled with light this heavenly temple. It is interest- 
230 



NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE 23 1 

ing also that, unlike earthly cities, its gates were 
open both day and night. Indeed, there was no 
night there. There is nothing there which might 
represent darkness, nothing which would be an 
emblem of darkness. There was no sorrow, no be- 
reavement, there were no tears, no graves. 

From this blissful abode, certain classes are ex- 
cluded; these are named, and their destiny is de- 
scribed. The list is long; it is also a sinful and 
sorrowful list. We are also definitely informed as 
to who shall be admitted. No one will be there 
whose name is not written in the Lamb's book of 
life. No question, therefore, can be more personal 
and more important than this one, " Is my name re- 
corded there ? " 

A Great Honor. 

Let me approach the discussion of the book of life 
by several stages. Notice, in the first place, that it 
is a great honor to have one's name recorded with 
commendation in any good book. Such a record 
suggests our desire to be associated with men and 
women whose names are to live in history. It is a 
valuable asset in any man's life to have his name re- 
corded in a famous book. A distinguished French- 
man lectured in one of the churches of this city. 
The pastor of the church introduced him to the audi- 
ence. On his return to France he wrote a book on 
America, and in that book he devotes a section to 
the delivery of his lecture in the church which he 



2$2 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

names. He also mentions eulogistically the name of 
the pastor of that church, and the introduction which 
that pastor gave to the lecturer. Dean Stanley, 
when in this country, visited Ticonderoga, and the 
historic places in its vicinity; the entire neighbor- 
hood is rich in reminiscences of the Colonial and 
Revolutionary periods. The pastor of one of the 
churches of the village was a member of the party 
on that occasion. The dean devoted a glowing 
chapter to that visit, and in that chapter he has 
placed on the pages of enduring history the name of 
that pastor. It is easy to believe that no part of 
the volume was so interesting to that pastor as that 
chapter. 

Many men and women have become known to 
fuure generations because their names are recorded 
in Boswell's " Life of Johnson/' Indeed, it is 
scarcely too much to say that we should never have 
heard of James Boswell had he not been the author 
of two volumes on the life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
volumes which appeared in 1791. Lord Macaulay, 
in his imperial and majestic manner, speaks of Bos- 
well as one of the smallest of men; he tells us that 
Johnson himself said that Boswell lost his oppor- 
tunity for immortality by not having been alive 
when Pope wrote his " Dunciad," for Boswell might 
have been made king of the dunces. Lord Macaulay 
also says that Homer is not more distinctively the 
first of heroic poets, Shakespeare the first of dra- 
matists, Demosthenes the first of orators, than Bos- 



NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE 233 

well is the first of biographers. He further tells us 
that he is so far in advance of all other biographers 
that the others have really no place in the list. Think 
of the men and women who are introduced to us by 
Boswell, of whom perhaps we should never have 
known ! Who in this audience would have known of 
Mrs. Thrale, who afterward became Mrs. Piozzi, at 
Streatham, near Croydon, but that her house for 
sixteen years was Johnson's home frequently for 
several days each week; and that her gracious in- 
fluence toned down his eccentricities in dress and 
manner, and that his tendency to gloom was greatly 
neutralized by this vivacious and charming woman. 
I venture to say that few in this audience, or in 
any audience, would ever have heard of Colley Cib- 
ber, were it not that Pope has pilloried and immor- 
talized him in his " Dunciad," which appeared in 
three books, in 1728 ; and yet Colley Cibber was an 
actor, a dramatist, a volunteer in the forces which 
supported the Prince of Orange, and in 1730 he was 
appointed poet laureate. His poems were so worth- 
less that Pope subjected him to scathing ridicule and 
made him the hero of the new " Dunciad," which ap- 
peared in four books in 1742. Probably few of us 
would have ever heard of noble Arthur Henry Hal- 
lam, although he was a young man of great promise, 
educated at Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge, 
and who died so suddenly at Vienna, were it not that 
Alfred Tennyson, to whose sister Hallam was en- 
gaged to be married, and whose friendship Tenny- 



234 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

son made in the university, has made him immortal 
in his " In Memoriam." That is a marvelous poem. 
Tennyson touches the deepest questions of life and 
of death in that poem. He made the premature death 
of Hallam his text in that poem, and so the name 
of Hallam is inseparably associated with the name 
of Tennyson. Robert Young Hayne was a man of 
marked ability in debate in the South Carolina State 
Legislature, and later in the Senate of the United 
States. He opposed with great vigor and vocifer- 
ous eloquence anti-slavery measures. But he would 
not have had enduring historic mention were it not 
that Daniel Webster, in January, 1830, in the United 
States Senate, with unanswerable logic and un- 
rivaled eloquence, replied to him. Webster in that 
answer delivered the most wonderful forensic ora- 
tion heard since the days of Demosthenes. Great 
was the speech of Hayne ; but vastly greater was the 
speech of Webster. Webster really gave Hayne his 
enduring place in the history of those heroic days. 

Scott, Dickens, and George Eliot have created en- 
during characters. No writer except Shakespeare 
has created so many characters as has Dickens. He 
has given us the names of certain types in daily life ; 
and they will abide on the page of literature almost 
as really as if they were genuine characters of his- 
tory. Micawber will live. In him Dickens created 
an accomplished Epicurean, the condemnable and 
yet delightful Micawber. George Eliot has given 
enduring life to Mrs. Poyser. Travelers in certain 



NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE 235 

parts of England and Scotland almost expect to find 
the characters created and immortalized by Sir 
Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and other great writers. 
The fame they have given to certain characters 
and neighborhoods causes tens of thousands of 
tourists to visit Scotland and other lands every year. 
The desire to have our name written in a book of 
even human production illustrates our sense of in- 
herent immortality. The illustration is still stronger 
when we think of the Lamb's book of life. The 
sense of immortality is a universal conviction. It 
is part of the original constitution of every rational 
man. It is found in all countries and in all cen- 
turies. It is impossible to explain its universality, 
except on the hypothesis of the reality of immor- 
tality itself. I rejoice in that sense of inherent im- 
mortality; it is suggestive of man's glory as made 
in the image of the eternal God. In death the or- 
ganific element of the man's real being will take to 
itself another form and will live on in the years to 
come. I like these words from George Macdonald, 
" I came from God, and I am going back to God, 
and I won't have any gaps of death in the middle of 
my life." From God we came ; to God we go ; and 
there will be no gap in the middle of our life. 

A Greater Honor. 

Will you let me advance a step? It is a greater 
honor to have one's name written with commenda- 
tion in The Book, the Bible. It is something to have 



236 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

one's name down in the Bible, even when that name 
is written by an uninspired hand. It means some- 
thing in a man's life that his name is in the family 
register in the family Bible ; this is distinctly a valu- 
able asset. When a man's name is not in the family 
Bible, an element of power has gone out of his life. 
It means much in any life to have a father and 
mother who so love the Bible that they want to have 
the names of their children written in the family 
register in the family Bible. I venture to say that all 
men and women in this audience who know that 
their names are written in that register will be con- 
scious that that fact in itself is an element of inspira- 
tion to nobler endeavors and to loftier achievements 
along the whole line of life. 

But it is still more significant, along the line of 
historic perpetuity, to have one's name written in 
the Bible in an inspired hand. Sometimes, indeed, 
such an inscription means an immortality of in- 
famy. Think how Ahab has come through the ages, 
because his name is in the Bible, branded with weak- 
ness and wickedness ! Think how the name of 
Jezebel has been perpetuated as the synonym of 
gross idolatry, of vulgar sin, and of subtle power as 
a temptress because her name is written in the 
Bible ! In her case, for the first time, the chief wife 
of a king of Israel was of the accursed Canaanite 
race. The name of Jezebel was long of dreadful im- 
port in Israelitish ears, though in later ages it ap- 
peared in the innocent form of Isabella. Her name 



NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE 237 

is found in the book of Revelation as the synonym 
of gross evil ! It is an awful thing to be pilloried 
forever in the Bible ! A million years from to-day, 
in all probability, Ahab and Jezebel will still be in 
the pillory. Think how the name of Pilate is the 
synonym of immortal infamy, because of the con- 
nection in which it is found in the Bible! Think 
how it has come down through some of the creeds 
of the church in a phrase which gives it an immor- 
tality of shame, " Suffered under Pontius Pilate." 
How terrible to be associated with Jesus Christ as 
the man who crucified him! In unnumbered years 
the name of Pilate will still be branded with infamy. 
Think of the name of Judas ! You would not give 
your boy the name Judas. But once that was a 
beautiful name. It is simply the Greek form of the 
Hebrew name Judah, meaning praise or honor. 
But now it is synonymous with the vilest treachery, 
with the foulest ingratitude, and with the most 
satanic infamy ! There is no mother who would call 
her boy Judas. It is a terrible thing to associate 
your name with the Name that is above every name 
as a traitor to that name. Perhaps, in God's records, 
your name is associated with the name of Christ, 
as one who once confessed him and who has now 
denied him ; as one who bears the name, and yet is 
disloyal to the character of Jesus Christ. What a 
painful thought that in God's records to-day your 
name may be associated with the name of Jesus as 
a denier, as a traitor ! God forbid ! 



238 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

I turn to the other side of this sad picture, and I 
see how glorious it is to have one's name divinely 
and approvingly written in the Bible. There stands 
the name of Abraham, who was called " the friend 
of God." What a superb eulogy! What immortal 
glory, as a nimbus, surrounds the name of Abraham ! 
Read the brief biography of Enoch : " Enoch 
walked with God." Some had forsaken the true 
God ; they walked without God. Not so did Enoch. 
Between him and God there was community in deed, 
word, and thought. In the days of his ancestor Seth 
some men called on the name of the Lord; but 
Enoch went further. He walked with God, thus 
enjoying God's presence in all the relations of life. 
Enoch thus loved good companionship. He did not 
simply step out now and then along the path with 
God, but he walked with God. Thus walking he 
reached the confines of life; and he then kept on 
walking with God. He is walking with God to-day 
in eternal fellowship. With what honor is the 
name of Joshua, the devout warrior, the chivalrous 
knight of truth and God, written in the Bible ! 
David — with his occasional faults and follies — is 
still mentioned as the man after God's own heart! 
Think of Mary with her broken alabaster box ! 
Jesus was a true prophet when he said : " Whereso- 
ever this gospel shall be preached throughout the 
whole world, this also that she hath done, shall be 
spoken of for a memorial of her." This prophecy 
has been literally fulfilled. The fragrance of that 



NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE 239 

alabaster box has filled the world. We inhale it to- 
day. O Mary, glorious and immortal was thine 
act of love when that ointment thou didst pour on 
the head of Jesus. That act shall be held in everlast- 
ing remembrance. I would rather perform some 
noble and loving act for Jesus than wear the proud- 
est crown of the greatest kingdom on earth to-day. 
I would rather wash and kiss his feet than sit on 
the loftiest throne of any kingdom on earth. Look 
at Dorcas ; behold her with her needle, making gar- 
ments for the poor, and making at the same time 
for herself a name more enduring than the names 
of Roman generals and emperors, and of Greek 
philosophers and poets. Her fame is more lasting 
than the monuments of bronze or marble. Think 
of the immortal honor that comes to Paul and to 
John, because of their places on the page of inspired 
literature ! Turn to the inscriptions and to the salu- 
tations in some of the Epistles of Paul and observe 
how he has immortalized men and women. Ex- 
amine the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans 
and call the roll of the men and women whose names 
Paul has there written and thus made glorious and 
immortal ! There is Phebe, " servant of the church 
which is at Cenchrea, ,, Priscilla and Aquila, " my 
helpers in Christ Jesus. " Paul says of them, " Who 
have for my life laid down their own necks. " What 
a commendation! You go on — read the honored 
list. Time will not permit me to recite all their 
names. The Apostle Paul was a courteous gentle- 



240 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

man. When he received hospitality or any other 
kindness he appreciatively recognized the fact. We 
have in modern times a kind of epistolary corre- 
spondence called bread-and-butter letters ; in Eng- 
land these letters are called " roofers." They are 
recognitions of the hospitality enjoyed in the homes, 
under the roofs of our friends. Paul writes letters 
expressive of his appreciation of all the courtesies 
extended to him. What a great thing it was to be 
the host and hostess of the Apostle Paul ! What a 
greater thing to be the host and hostess of Jesus 
Christ and have him become our host, and we be- 
come his guests ! 

The Greatest Honor. 

And now we reach the last stage in our approach 
to the immortal roll of honor. It is the greatest 
thing to have one's name written in the " Lamb's 
book of life." This is the highest honor known 
among men or angels. When a student in college 
I committed to memory passages from the Odes of 
Horace, as well as some of the most striking pas- 
sages in Homer. I remember that Horace says in 
his "Carmina," according to the English translation : 
" If you rank me with the lyric poets, my exalted 
head shall strike the stars." But what are the lyric 
poets compared with the saints whose names are 
written in the Lamb's book of life? It is a great 
honor to have high rank among the students of 
astronomy; the science of mighty orbs, stupendous 



NAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE 24I 

distances, and majestic adjustments in time and 
space. How I would rejoice to be a great astron- 
omer ! How I could sit at night and study the stars 
and still more fully appreciate the psalmist's words 
in the Nineteenth psalm : " The heavens declare the 
glory of God : and the firmament sheweth his handy- 
work." It is an enviable ambition to know biology, 
the science of living organisms, science of growth, 
of health, and of life itself. It is highly commend- 
able to be a masterful student of law. If I had my 
life to live over again I would take a course in law 
before entering the ministry. Law is the science of 
legislation, of government, of civilization. It is 
simply sublime to be deeply learned in philosophy, 
the science including the profound things of men 
and of creation. It is grander still to know the- 
ology; for theology is the queen of all the sciences. 
Theology is the science of God. Theology is the 
science of man in his relations to God. But what 
avails it to know all things from protoplasm to 
God, and not know God as Creator and as Re- 
deemer ? What shall it profit a man for his name to 
be written on the honor roll of the academies of 
science in London, Vienna, Paris, St. Petersburg, 
and New York, and he be without God and without 
hope? Oh! What shall it profit a man if he gain 
the whole world of science and art and lose his 
own soul in all its highest possibilities of life and 
love? 
To have one's name written in the Lamb's book 
Q 



242 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

of life implies that one has lived a Christly life. 
We shall never have our names written in the book 
of life except the name of the Lamb is written on 
our hearts and lives. " Cut deeper," said the French 
soldier to the surgeon when he was probing for the 
bullet, " and you will find the name of the emperor." 
I want to have the name that is above every name 
written on my heart. We shall never, never, enter 
heaven then and there, except heaven enter us here 
and now. We must have heaven here before heaven 
can have us hereafter. Only they who know Christ 
now and confess Christ now shall be known and 
confessed by Christ hereafter. I put it to you, 
women and men. We are sitting quietly in God's 
house amid the solemnities of this sacred place on 
this stormy day. I put to you now this question: 
Is your name written in the Lamb's book of life? 
Have you ever asked Jesus Christ to write your 
name there? Is your wife's name written there? 
And does your wife's name stand there alone? 
O man, are you to be separated from your wife for- 
ever? Are you to be divorced at the judgment-seat 
of God and never be united in eternity? Are your 
children's names in the Lamb's book of life? Will 
you not just now lift up the prayer to God from 
your deepest soul, " O Lamb of God, thou that 
takest away the sin of the world, let my name now 
be written in thy book of life ? " 



XVIII 

LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 

Text: I will make mention of the lovingkindnesses of 
Jehovah, and the praises of Jehovah, according to all that 
Jehovah hath bestowed on us. — Isa. 63 : 7. 

THIS inspired writer laid out for himself an 
enormous task. How can any man fully men- 
tion the loving-kindness of the Lord? How can 
any man name all the subjects for praise to the 
Lord? Especially does the task become difficult, if 
not impossible, when we observe the measure in 
which the writer declares that he will perform 
these duties, " according to all that the Lord hath 
bestowed upon us." When you glance at the chapter 
you observe that it opens with a sublime description 
of Jehovah as a warrior with blood-stained gar- 
ments, fresh from battle in Edom. There he had 
completely trodden down his foes; there he glori- 
ously revealed his righteous indignation. This de- 
scription seems almost like a separate poem added 
to this chapter. It has been called a lyrico-dramatic 
dialogue between the prophet as a bystander and 
Jehovah as a victorious warrior returning from 
battle in Idumaea. His garments are red with 
blood. In his movements he exhibits the indomi- 
table strength of a resistless warrior. " Who is this 

243 



244 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from 
Bozrah ? " In answer to the question he responds, 
" I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." I 
have always felt that this language was sublime in 
the extreme. I can remember perfectly well how 
the reading of the opening of this chapter affected 
me as a boy. I did not, indeed, understand its sig- 
nificance, but I was charmed by its majesty, its 
stateliness, and its rare sublimity. In maturer years 
I have not changed my opinion of this remarkable 
description. With a reasonable familiarity with 
literature, ancient and modern, I know of no similar 
description that surpasses this in majesty; indeed, 
I think it would be difficult to name any passage in 
any literature that equals this passage in the partic- 
ulars named. 

With the verse which forms the text this morning, 
the subject of discussion changes. The verse is the 
beginning of an address which opens with thanks- 
giving to God for his loving-kindness, his tender 
compassion, and his gracious love to his people. 
This opening is followed by a historical survey of 
Israel's shortcomings, and of God's most gracious 
dealings with his people. There is a dominantly 
thankful and a greatly jubilant tone in my text this 
morning. That tone caught my ear; it stirred my 
soul ; it led me to choose this text for the discourse 
of the morning. The return from Babylon is con- 
ceived of as near, even in almost immediate pros- 
pect. It gives occasion for great rejoicing. That 



LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 245 

deliverance has colored all the thinking of the people 
of Israel ever since. The burst of joy occasioned 
by the return from Babylon has had only one parallel 
in Jewish history, namely, the deliverance from 
Egypt. Indeed, the return from Babylon is thought 
of by Jewish writers as the second exodus of the 
nation. It was like a blessed dream to the writer of 
the One hundred and twenty-sixth psalm; it was 
too good to be true. The gaiety and laughter of 
the songs of the joyous people echoed afar. The 
reaper came home bringing his sheaves with him 
and rejoicing with unspeakable joy. Seas, rivers, 
mountains, and forests are all called upon to voice 
the nation's joy. My text, " I will mention the lov- 
ingkindnesses of Jehovah," is the keynote to the 
song expressive of the nation's boundless joy. 

Commensurate Thanksgiving. 

Our lives also are full of tokens of God's loving- 
kindness; but we too often allow his mercies to 
pass by us without due appreciation. It is well on 
this last Sunday of the year that we should think 
on a large scale of God's goodness. In these days 
men think financially in millions ; in these days men 
ought to think politically in continents. Our nation 
has become great. Its provincial days are over; 
they will never return. Our nation is a giant that 
has emerged from its cradle and all the anti-expan- 
sionists in the country can never put this giant 
back again into his infantile cradle. We touch the 



246 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

world at more points to-day than ever before in 
our history. Our thanksgiving to God ought to be 
on a scale commensurate with our great place among 
the nations. It is impossible for us now to think 
of ourselves in our continental isolation; we must 
regard ourselves as in ubiquitous touch with all the 
nations and all the great movements of the world. 

Betterment on the Congo. 

We ought this morning to thank God for his 
loving-kindness because of the efforts now making 
toward the abatement of the satanic evils in the 
Congo region. These evils have been another of the 
open sores of the world. Doubtless some of the 
horrors may have been exaggerated, but after all 
possible deduction has been made, these horrors are 
simply hadean. The king of the Belgians stands con- 
victed of high crimes before the civilized world. 
The Congo Free State embraces a region of more 
than nine hundred thousand square miles ; it is con- 
siderably larger than were the thirteen original States 
which formed our American Union. The Congo 
Association was originally organized under the 
patronage of King Leopold for the express purpose 
of suppressing the slave trade, but instead of doing 
so it has reduced the entire territory into a condition 
virtually indistinguishable from that of slavery. 
The whole world is aroused. Great Britain and 
the United States are joining hands for the suppres- 
sion of these cruelties. When these two branches 



LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 247 

of the Anglo-Saxon race join hands to suppress 
evil, no nation nor congeries of nations in the 
world, will dare oppose their union for this purpose. 
These two branches of the Anglo-Saxon people can 
rule the world, rule it for law and liberty, rule it 
for peace and prosperity, rule it for civilization and 
Christianity. The labored attempts of Cardinal 
Gibbons and Archbishop Farley to exculpate the 
king of the Belgians for his share in these atrocities 
will not meet with the approval of the American 
people. They have done themselves and they have 
done their church great injury in putting themselves 
alongside this monster of iniquity in the opening 
years of the twentieth century. Naturally they were 
disposed to favor him as much as possible, as he is a 
loyal son of the Roman Church, but they have in- 
jured their church in endeavoring to support him, 
and they have also injured themselves. They are 
either unintelligent or dishonest in their support of 
this monstrous king, this Ivan the Fourth of the 
twentieth century, " this murderer of millions/' as 
he has been called by Mark Twain. Thank God this 
frightful evil will be destroyed ; thank God this open 
sore will be healed ! 

Separation of Church and State in France. 

We ought also to mention the loving-kindness of 
our God this morning because of the movement 
toward the separation of Church and State in 
France. This is a movement of mighty import. 



248 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

The spirit of the Huguenots still lives. The awful 
cruelties of St. Bartholomew's Day and of the ex- 
pulsion of the Huguenots on the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes are not forgotten. The Huguenot 
expatriates and martyrs did not suffer in vain. Their 
heroic spirit still lives. A new day is dawning for 
France and for civil and religious liberty through- 
out the world. Spain, so long bound hand and 
foot, soul and body, with the fetters of illiteracy and 
superstition and priestcraft, is shaking off the ter- 
rible bondage of the centuries. The war between 
the United States and Spain was the greatest bless- 
ing ever enjoyed by the Spanish people. That war 
opened the eyes of all classes and conditions in 
Spain. Every country that is dominantly Roman in 
faith has been characterized by illiteracy and super- 
stition. France is to realize Cavour's dream, the 
dream that stirred my soul in my college days, the 
dream which he translated into the phrase : " A free 
Church in a free State." That dream France will 
realize before many years shall pass. This is the 
only condition of safety for a republic. The as- 
sumption of the pope is that the Vatican is an im- 
perium in imperio, that it is a power entirely above 
the State, supreme in all things. The pope continues 
to assert his rights as a temporal prince, forgetting 
that he was deprived of these rights years ago when 
Emmanuel rode in triumph through the streets of 
the Eternal City. As a temporal sovereign he in- 
sists on interfering with the affairs of France. No 



LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 249 

government with the slightest self-respect will per- 
mit such outside interference, especially by a man 
who is himself a subject of a foreign king, and still 
more especially by a pope whose election was de- 
termined by Austria. Shall France permit a pope 
elected by Austria to dominate the affairs of the 
French Republic? No, never, while the spirit of 
patriotic Frenchmen breathes in that republic ! 

Nonconformist Determination. 

Permit me to say, in the third place, that the de- 
termination of the Nonconformists of Great Britain 
to secure an equitable Education Bill is also a cause 
for mentioning the loving-kindness of our God, 
Baptists have a special interest in the Education 
Bill. It was introduced in the Commons by a Bap- 
tist; it has been championed especially by Baptists. 
The foremost Nonconformist minister to-day, far 
and away the foremost, in Great Britain, is our 
Baptist brother, Rev. Dr. John Clifford. He cer- 
tainly has no peer in any pulpit in Great Britain as 
a leader of the Nonconformist forces. Baptists have 
always been the stout advocates of civil and religious 
liberty. For this cause they dyed the snows on 
Alpine heights and fattened the Alpine valleys with 
their blood. To this holy cause they have given 
more martyrs than any other church. They have 
never persecuted, but have been persecuted by many 
churches for their loyal devotion to soul-liberty, to 
the sacred privilege of worshiping God according 



250 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

to their own consciences and the teachings of the 
Bible. This bill, passed by a liberal majority in the 
House of Commons was, as you know, amended by 
the House of Lords. These amendments were so 
radical that they entirely changed the nature of the 
bill. The bill was then returned to the Commons, 
and it was rejected by the Commons by a vote of 
four hundred and sixteen to one hundred and seven. 
The decision of the House of Lords has brought 
great disappointment and hardship to the Noncon- 
formists. It obliges them to continue the passive 
resistance movement until a way shall be found to 
compel the Lords to yield to the will of the people. 
Stirring days are coming in Great Britain. The 
House of Lords may itself be compelled to go out of 
business. It would not be at all surprising if, be- 
fore many years pass, the House of Lords should be 
greatly modified as to its membership and as to its 
methods of legislation. The British people are 
aroused; they will not longer be dominated by the 
reactionary methods of the House of Lords. That 
House may have to fight in the near future for its 
own existence. I venture the prophecy that separa- 
tion between Church and State will come compara- 
tively soon in Great Britain. The Anglican Church 
is unjust in the extreme toward the Nonconformists 
of Great Britain. It taxes them for the support of 
schools in which are taught principles which they 
do not believe and must oppose. 

The union of Church and State is a remnant of 



LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 25 1 

medievalism. It must go; it will go. Disestablish- 
ment of the Anglican Church has already taken place 
in Ireland; disestablishment will take place soon in 
Wales ; later disestablishment will take place in Eng- 
land. The Nonconformists are much more numer- 
ous than the Anglicans in Wales, and in England 
itself the Nonconformists are growing more rapidly 
than the Anglicans, notwithstanding their possession 
of vast church properties inherited by them from the 
Roman Church, and all the forms of social prestige 
and educational advantage which that church has so 
long enjoyed, and so selfishly monopolized. It is 
also certain that the old Presbyterian Kirk will be 
disestablished in Scotland. Brave Scotchmen will 
not forever submit to a national church supported 
by general taxation, while the people are supporting 
Baptist, Congregational, and Free Presbyterian 
churches by their voluntary offerings. The Free 
Church is utterly outstripping the Old Kirk, al- 
though it is supported by the revenues of the State. 
The principles of American liberty are permeating 
England, Ireland, Scotland, and the world. They 
are the principles of God's word and they will 
assuredly prevail. 

Annihilation of Space. 

We ought also to thank God this morning for the 
progress of science which is annihilating space, and 
which is contributing so greatly to the rapid spread 
of the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Modern 



252 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

miracles abound. A new miracle greets us every 
morning. Indeed, these scientific miracles are so nu- 
merous and so marvelous that they no longer excite 
surprise. So many things already in the twentieth 
century have become facts which were in the closing 
years of the nineteenth century only fancies that 
another marvel is no longer marvelous. Men a 
thousand miles apart sit and converse almost as 
easily as if they were sitting in the same room. 
Sermons fly through the air to hospitals and to 
homes from many pulpits. Business conversations 
are now recorded by telautographs and similar in- 
struments so that written contracts are actually 
made over telephones. Ships are warned of their 
approach to rocks by automatic instruments in the 
captain's cabin. The president goes on a trip to 
Panama and keeps in constant touch with the gov- 
ernment at Washington during all the time of his 
absence. Marvels are no longer marvelous. It is 
easier than ever before to believe in prayer; it is 
easier than ever before to believe in all spiritual real- 
ities. If we can talk to our brother man a thousand 
miles away in perfect harmony with natural law, can 
we not talk to our Father in heaven, possibly also in 
perfect harmony with natural law? Before many 
years pass we may be able to demonstrate that 
prayer is as much in harmony with natural law as 
is the long-distance telephone. When a man tells 
me that I cannot talk to God, I have a right to ask : 
" How do you know, sir, that I cannot talk to 



LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 2$3 

God ? " I thank God that in these days science has 
become humble, modest, docile, and to a wonderful 
degree, religious. A great change has come over 
scientific thought and method during the last thirty 
to forty years; now many of the noblest scientists 
are humble worshipers at the pierced feet of Jesus 
Christ. Science has become, to a large degree, the 
handmaid of religion. We now see that the God of 
geology and of Genesis is one God, that truth is 
one, that truth cannot contradict itself, and that the 
God of truth is our Father, and the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Gain in Law-abidingness. 

Observe also as a cause for thanksgiving to God 
that a better spirit is prevailing regarding the ob- 
servance of law. This is a cause for most emphatic 
mention of the loving-kindness of our God. This 
nation of ours was fast becoming a byword among 
all civilized peoples because of our lynching and 
other forms of lawlessness. I have never blushed 
as an American in the presence of any foreigner as 
I have because of the lawlessness which at times has 
prevailed in this country. At times it seemed as 
if we were becoming a nation of savages ; indeed, 
this term was applied to us by Buddhists in Japan 
and Hindus in India in their conversations with me 
on this subject. It has seemed as if Darkest Africa 
in this respect were light compared with parts of 
our beloved America. There is still room for enor- 



254 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

mous improvement on this general subject, but a 
better sentiment is coming to prevail. America 
ought to be, America is, another name for oppor- 
tunity, as Emerson has said. Christianity is the 
hope of the world; Christianity gives us the true 
socialism; Christianity levels a nation — levels it up, 
not down; Christianity lifts the downtrodden and 
gives all classes of men a fair chance. Racial caste 
is the foe of all nations where it is permitted to 
dominate. " The two great relics of barbarism/' as 
Wu Ting Fang said once in this pulpit, " are re- 
ligious bigotry and racial prejudice." 

Racial prejudice brings forth its complete fruit 
in India. There is no great chance for a man in 
India so long as the present caste system prevails. 
If his father was a cobbler, he must be a cobbler ; if 
his father was poor, he must be poor. A man can 
go down but he never can go up under the influence 
of that ancient and cruel caste system. There would 
have been no chance for a Garfield, no chance for a 
McKinley in India. We have been in danger of 
being under a similar control in our country. Give 
the black man a chance ! That is all I ask for him. 
I ask for him no favors, but simply fair play. Are 
we so afraid of our Anglo-Saxon domination that 
we do not dare give a black man fair play? If so, 
we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Let us get 
out of his way; let the poor fellow have a chance. 
That is all I ask. When he sins, punish him, but 
punish him according to law ; and when a white man 



LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 255 

sins, punish him according to law. Mob law is born 
of hades, and it leads to the place of its birth. The 
devil is the chief anarchist. Every man engaged in 
lynching is a murderer, and the sin of murder is on 
his soul. The governors of States are beginning to 
recognize that fact, and the great God will hold 
every lyncher responsible for murder at the great 
white throne. This is no longer a sectional sin; it 
is now a national crime. A mob is both brainless 
and conscienceless. Thank God a better spirit is 
coming to prevail. 

Great Revivals. 

I close by saying that the chief cause for our mak- 
ing mention of the loving-kindness of Jehovah this 
morning is that great revivals have been prevailing 
during the past year, and are likely to prevail in 
still larger measure during the opening year. This 
is the hope of the world. I am a believer in all 
moral reforms, but I must be especially a believer 
in the moral reform of the world — the dominance 
of the religion of Jesus Christ. I believe with Glad- 
stone that we ought to make the commission of 
evil difficult and the doing of right easy; but back 
of all human law we want men and women to be 
made new creatures in Christ Jesus. That trans- 
formation is the hope of the race. Then lynching 
will go; then caste prejudice will go. You may 
see in India to-day a high-caste Brahmin sitting side 
by side in a mission school with a pariah, both of 



256 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

them washed in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, 
both new creatures in Christ Jesus, and both 
brothers in service and love. All forms of progress 
are secondary to revivals of pure and undefiled re- 
ligion. This blessing includes all other desirable 
things. Looking back over the closing year we are 
filled with thanksgiving to God for the great meet- 
ings held by Doctor Torrey, in Ottawa, in Toronto, 
in Philadelphia, in Atlanta, and in other cities of 
Canada and of the United States. We give thanks- 
giving to God for the leadership of Doctor Chapman 
in great revivals. This movement has been the birth 
of a new day in these United States. We give thanks 
to God for the work in Boston, in Portland, and else- 
where of Gipsy Smith. He is a man of marvelous 
power; his spirit is sweet; his words are gracious; 
and his soul is aglow with love to God and to the 
souls of men. The old gospel has not lost its power ; 
thank God it never will lose its power until this sin- 
ful world is brought in sweet obedience to the feet 
of Jesus Christ. Here, almost at the close of thirty- 
seven years of my pastorate I stand under the cross 
and preach the old gospel with greater faith in its 
efficacy and resistless power than ever before in my 
ministry. We shall soon step with God over into 
the new year. We take the hand of Jesus Christ; 
we keep step to the music of his name. We shall not 
all see the close of the new year. Some of us be- 
ginning the year with God here shall end the year 
with God there. If spared our song on earth shall 



LESSONS OF THE CLOSING YEAR 257 

be of his loving-kindness ; if translated, our song in 
heaven, with sweeter notes and higher joy, shall 
still be of his loving-kindness which is without be- 
ginning or ending in duration, and without measure 
in degree. 



XIX 

GOD'S GUIDANCE FOR THE NEW YEAR 

Text: Fear thou not, for I am with thee ; be not dis- 
mayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I 
will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right 
hand of my righteousness. — Isa. 41 : 10. 

AS you know, it has been my custom for some 
years on the first Sunday of the New Year to 
give a motto-text for the year. Sometimes this text 
has been an exhortation from God ; sometimes it has 
been a declaration of purpose on our part toward 
God; and sometimes it has been a blessed promise 
from God's word for our guidance and inspiration 
during the year. This year the text selected is one 
of the great promises of God. It seemed well that 
the motto-text should be printed on the last page 
of the calendar for to-day ; if you will preserve the 
calendars which are in the pews you will have con- 
stantly before you a reminder of the text chosen as 
the motto for the year 1907. If you look at the 
thirteenth verse of this same chapter you will find 
that the thought of the text, as related to God's 
grasp of our right hand, is somewhat amplified and 
is beautifully emphasized. This text is part of a 
most precious series of promises; this series is a 
cluster of ripe grapes from Eshcol. The text is a 
258 



GODS GUIDANCE FOR THE NEW YEAR 259 

treasure-house of precious truth; it is sweet honey 
exuding from the honeycomb. If we do nothing 
more than commit this text to memory and carry it 
with us through the year we shall have constant 
guidance and divine inspiration amid the trials 
which the year is certain to bring. 

The Divine Presence. 

I call your attention, in the first place, to the 
promise of the divine presence given us in this text, 
" Fear thou not, for / am with thee.'' Fear is not an 
uncommon ailment with God's children. We stand 
hesitating on the border-line of the new year. We 
know not what it has in store for us. We know, 
indeed, that God does not promise that his people 
shall not have trials, but he does promise that his 
presence and his support will be constantly given to 
his people in all their trials. He also gives them 
assurance of victory over the trial. He does not 
promise that they shall not go into the fiercely 
heated furnace, but he does promise that he will go 
into that furnace with them, and that they shall 
come out of its fiercest flames without the smell of 
fire on their garments. 

Spiritual conflicts often accompany temporal 
trials. Why does God afflict his people ? Why do they 
suffer often apparently more than do those who are 
not God's people? Why does he chasten those 
whom he loves? Thus it comes to pass that oppos- 
ing principles sometimes strive for the mastery in 



260 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

the hearts of God's true children. Each man is, 
in a sense, two men; the old life and the new life 
struggle within us for the mastery. In every man 
there is a Mr. Hyde; in every man there is also a 
Doctor Jekyll. But in every trial we may be abso- 
lutely sure of the presence of God to cheer and to 
support us. This assurance is quite sufficient to 
dispel our fears, to scatter our doubts, and to inspire 
our hearts. All the perfections of God's character 
are pledged to our protection. We are under the 
watchfulness of his eye; we share in the powerful- 
ness of his arm; we have a place in the pity of his 
heart. Sweet are the words of the One hundred 
and third psalm and the thirteenth verse : " Like as 
a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear him." Here the fatherly, the paternal, side 
of God's character is beautifully illustrated. There 
is, however, a passage of Scripture which is even 
more tender ; it is found in Isaiah, the sixty-seventh 
chapter and the thirteenth verse : " As one whom his 
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." No one 
but God can comfort like a mother. Fathers, how- 
ever gentle and loving they intend to be and really 
are, are cold and awkward compared to mothers. 
Mothers have secrets for comforting their children 
which fathers never can learn. Many of us can re- 
member, although the years since that time are rap- 
idly multiplying, the music of the mother's voice and 
the magic touch of her hand upon our head or our 
shoulder; no other influence could so soothe a tired 



god's guidance for the new year 261 

and fretful boy's spirits. There will come times even 
now when the words of the laureate will press upon 
our souls: 

Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still ! 

My thoughts go up this morning from earthly 
fathers and mothers to God. God is both father and 
mother to his children. I rejoice that in these later 
years I have come into a larger and tenderer rela- 
tionship to God. I have learned to think of God 
as possessing the gentleness of a mother conjoined 
with the omnipotence of God. He gives a father's 
pity; and he gives a mother's comfort. The chief 
element in this pity and comfort, according to the 
part of my text now in our thought, is the assurance 
of his presence — " / am with thee." We are re- 
minded of the divine promise as given in the Great 
Commission : " Lo, I am with you always, even unto 
the end of the world." Surely he will be with us 
even unto the end of the year, when he is to be with 
us to the end of all the years. 

The Old Testament abounds with illustrations of 
God's promises to abide with his people. Look at 
Jacob on his stony pillow. Night gathers about 
him. He is weary, he is sinful, he is sad. He 
sleeps ; he dreams. The rough stones which he had 
seen in the ledges of rock about him just before he 
closed his eyes in slumber — stones which to this day 
are arranged like steps in a stairway — are still in 



262 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

his thought as he dreams. In the visions of the 
night they form a vast stairway ; the messengers of 
God ascend and descend on this heavenly ladder. 
God speaks to the houseless wanderer. The place 
becomes a Bethel, the very gate of heaven. Listen, 
" Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all 
places whither thou goest." This assurance could 
not fail to fill his troubled heart with peace and to 
inspire his anxious thought with hope. Who may 
be the successor of Moses? What hands shall take 
up the burden which he has laid down? It almost 
seems as if all the plans of God for Israel must be 
defeated. There was but one Moses in the world. 
No man could fill his great place. But God will find 
a brave man who will nobly fill a great place of his 
own. There stands Joshua. How dare he assume 
the work ? But above him stands God. God speaks 
to Joshua, saying : " Be strong and of a good cour- 
age. As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee ; 
I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee ; there shall not 
any man be able to stand before thee all the days of 
thy life." 

These are most wonderful words. Any man can 
do exploits when he has such a promise as God 
gave Joshua for his encouragement. Any man can 
stand when the Rock of Ages is behind him; any 
man can follow when God leads in the way. Who 
may undertake to succeed David ? See Solomon ; 
w r ell may he be overwhelmed with the sense of his 
great responsibility ; but God speaks : " I will be 



god's guidance for the new year 263 

with thee, and build thee a sure house." So God 
was with Paul and Silas in the old jail at Philippi; 
and because of the consciousness of God's presence 
they made that old jail vocal with their songs of 
praise to God. So God has been with his people in 
all the ages since. Think of the glorious army of 
martyrs — the Latimers, the Hoopers, the Ridleys ! 
Think of those who went with weary feet through 
the glens, or climbed the rugged hills of Scotland — 
Donald Cargill, James Renwick, and other brave, 
heroic, and immortal men! From the horrors of 
the Grass Market noble souls went up to glory and 
to God. Every land has had its martyrs for Jesus ; 
every land has had its baptism of blood. Think of 
our Baptist brethren who suffered in America for 
truth — Obadiah Holmes, John Clark, John Crandall, 
and many others. Each one realized the fulfilment 
of God's precious promises : " I am with thee ; my 
presence shall go with thee ; I will never leave thee, 
nor forsake thee." 

Reality of the Divine Relationship. 

I beg you to notice, in the second place, another 
ground of comfort in this sweet motto-text; the 
first is the assurance of the divine presence ; the sec- 
ond is the reality of the divine relationship. You 
catch the thought as you read the text : " For I am 
thy God." The reality of divine relationship is 
here emphasized. Notice the singular form of the 
pronouns, / am thy God." God is your God, and 



264 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

he is my God; he is all yours, and he is all mine. 
God is, in a peculiar sense, the God of his people. 
Like others, they are created by his power; like 
others, they share in the blessings of his providence, 
for the sun shines alike upon the good and upon the 
evil, upon the just and the unjust. But, unlike 
others, true believers are born again; all true be- 
lievers are twice born. Born of the flesh they are 
fleshly; born of the spirit they are spiritual. Only 
true believers can really say, " Our Father, who art 
in heaven." All men may repeat the words, and 
in a vague sense the words belong to all men; but 
in their fulness and tenderness of meaning they be- 
long only to those who have the adoption of sons. 
Only they who have come into God's family by 
adoption and by regeneration can really say, " Abba, 
Father/' God has a great many prodigal sons ; in a 
sense they are his sons although they are prodigals. 
But while men are with the swine in the far country, 
they cannot, except in a limited, dwarfed, and 
truncated sense, say " Abba, Father." Not until 
they have come back home to the Father's feet 
and the Father's heart can they really say " Our 
Father." 

All true Christians have entered into a new rela- 
tionship with God. Those who are truly regener- 
ated stand as closely related to God in their spiritual 
nature as they stand related to their earthly father 
in their physical nature. Nothing is more certain 
than that the relationship to the Almighty is as 



god's guidance for the new year 265 

close and personal as is the relationship to the 
earthly father on the human side. We are distinctly 
taught by the Apostle Peter that we are " partakers 
of the divine nature." In Heb. 12 : 10, we have 
the words : " That we might be partakers of his 
holiness." As a man grows older and looks into 
the mirror he sees there in the reflection of his own 
face his own father and sees his mother. He sees 
parts of his mother's face and also parts of his 
father's face and head. A man is the child of both 
his parents. As a man grows older he can the more 
fully see in himself the likeness to his parents. So 
when a man looks up he ought to see in himself as a 
child of God the likeness of God, who is his second 
Father, his spiritual Father, his divine Father, as 
truly as he sees the likeness to his earthly father and 
mother. If we are truly children of God we are 
related to God by the second birth, by regeneration, 
as truly as we are related to our earthly parents by 
natural generation. Oh, how sweet is this personal 
relationship — " I am thy God." It is blessed to be 
able to say, " The Lord is my shepherd." It would 
have been a wonderful thing if the psalmist had said 
only that " the Lord is a shepherd" ; but he said 
vastly more. He said : " The Lord is my shepherd." 
He brought the Lord thus down to the side of men. 
I walk along the street to a magnificent mansion 
and I say : " This is a magnificent home," and I look 
upon it with admiration. How different my relation 
to it would be if I could say : " This is my home." 



266 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

I look up to God and I say : " This is my God." I 
am warranted in so saying, as I read this text, be- 
cause God says, " For I am thy God." 

Make him thy God during 1907. Remember how 
Longfellow, in his " Evangeline," speaks of the 
shuddering mimosa. Yonder it is on the plain; its 
heart is open; it listens; and now comes the horse- 
man thundering over the plain. His hoof-beats 
the shuddering flower hears and feels. Watch it; 
it trembles. Its leaves begin to close over its 
trembling heart, fearing what those hoof-beats may 
portend. Our hearts to-day, in spite of ourselves, 
are shuddering flowers; and as we hear the hoof- 
beats of God's providence over the plain we tremble, 
we shrink, we fear ; but above all other sounds may 
we to-day hear God say : " Fear not, I am with thee, 
I am thy God." 

The Divine Achievements. 

Thus far in my analysis of the text I have given 
you two grounds of comfort: First, the assurance 
of the divine presence ; secondly, the reality of the 
divine relationship. In the third place, let me speak 
of the divine achievements. Perhaps, instead of " I 
will strengthen thee," the translation should be, " I 
have strengthened thee." The two other verbs also 
may be in the past tense, but they may also be re- 
garded as prophetic of future good. God is the 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever ; with him there 
is no variableness nor shadow of turning. The past 



god's guidance for the new year 267 

and the future blend in this text in an eternal pres- 
ent. God's past achievements give assurance of 
future triumphs. God will go hand in hand with 
us through this new year. Times of trial are sure 
to come, but God will be present with his aid. Are 
you destitute of friends ? God will be a friend who 
sticketh closer than a brother. Are you conscious of 
sin? He will save to the uttermost all who come to 
him through Jesus Christ. Are you lacking in 
wisdom? Then ask of God and he will give wis- 
dom liberally and upbraid not. Are you weak and 
wavering? Then he will encourage you with his 
gracious promise and uphold you with his right 
hand. Does the future seem to us forbidding? Re- 
member God's past achievements. Let the past de- 
liverances give us hope for future temptations. Let 
our yesterdays be encouragements for our to-mor- 
rows. Do not attempt to load to-morrow's burdens 
on to-day's strength. No man, however godly, has 
strength enough to-day for to-morrow's burdens 
added to those of to-day. Sufficient for the day is 
the burden thereof. Do not go out into the new 
year in a spirit of fear and distrust. God graciously 
hides the future from our view. This fact is an 
evidence of his wisdom and love. If we knew to-day 
that great joy or sorrow were coming to-morrow 
we would be unfitted for the duties of to-day. Let 
us remember the blessed promise, " As thy days, so 
shall thy strength be." 

Many of God's dear children fear the article of 



268 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

death ; they spend part of their lives in bondage be- 
cause of their fear of death. This is a foolish fear. 
Perhaps we have talked too much about preparation 
for death. We ought to talk more of preparation for 
life. He who is prepared by a living and personal 
faith in Christ rightly to live is prepared always to 
die. We ought not to pray to be saved from sudden 
death, as some of the prayer-books teach us to pray. 
That prayer is based on a gross superstition — the 
superstition that extreme unction, or some other 
priestly rite must be administered before we are pre- 
pared to die. This belief is the crass ignorance of 
medieval superstition. Let us live Christly lives and 
we shall assuredly die victorious deaths. If God 
gives us living grace, while he preserves us in life, 
he certainly will not deny us dying grace when the 
dying hour comes. 

I know nothing sweeter than the words of my 
text, especially when joined to the words of the 
thirteenth verse, " For the Lord thy God will hold 
thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will 
help thee." This reference to the right hand is a 
Hebrew method of saying that God's hand was 
faithful, trustworthy, reliable. 

He was a wise boy who said, when walking with 
his father on a slippery street and whose father had 
said to him, " Take hold of my hand," " Father, I 
would rather that you would take hold of my hand ; 
your hand is so strong that you can hold mine very 
tight." Let us to-day put our hand in God's hand. 



god's guidance for the new year 269 

His hand upholds the universe; nothing is beyond 
its power, its tenderness, and gentleness. Will you 
now take God for your Saviour, your Lord and 
Master during the new year? Will you, here and 
now, put your weak hand in his fatherly and power- 
ful hand for this year and for all the future of your 
life? 

I ask each one now to lift up the hand and place 
it in God's hand. He will uphold you, he will 
strengthen you, yea, he will cause you to stand. 
Come bright or dark days, days of storm or calm, 
thus upheld by God we shall overcome every trial 
and win every victory. I put my hand now in God's 
hand for 1907. O Father in heaven, let me feel 
thy loving clasp to-day. Let me go out with thee 
into the new year. Hold me, Father, with thy 
powerful hand until every trial is over, until faith 
gives place to sight, time to eternity, and earth with 
its trials to heaven with boundless joy, unbroken 
peace, and ineffable bliss ! 



XX 

THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 

Text: Come, see the place where the Lord lay. — Matt. 
28 : 6. 

WITH garlands and hosannas we respond to 
the " All hail " of the risen and victorious 
Christ. We see him marching forth in triumph 
with the keys of death and hades hanging from 
his girdle. Once more we chant the triumphant 
words of the Apostle Paul, in his great argument 
for Christ's resurrection : " Thanks be to God, who 
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

Easter is the most joyful festival of the Christian 
Church. We regret the heathen associations of the 
name Easter, but the name must remain, and we can 
fill it with sublime thoughts of Christ's glorious 
victory. Without doubt the name is derived from 
that of the Teutonic goddess of Spring, Ostera, or 
Eostre, this festival occurring about the time of the 
year that Easter is celebrated. Both in the churches 
of the East and the West, profound significance was 
seen in the Easter commemoration as suggesting the 
death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the 
Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. 
270 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 27 1 

Christ was the true Paschal Lamb, slain on the very- 
day observed by the Jews in celebration of their 
Passover. Easter was, therefore, often called by the 
French, the Paques ; the Dutch, Paschen ; the Danes, 
Paaske; and the Swedes, Pask. The Apostle Paul 
calls Christ " our Pasch." 

We can all sympathize with the practice of the 
Russian Church, whose members on Easter greet 
one another with the jubilant saluation : " The Lord 
is risen " ; and those addressed make the joyful 
response : " He is truly risen." The kiss of holy 
brotherhood seals this new bond of Christian faith 
and love. It is not surprising that in the early 
history of the church many Christians, and even 
pagans, on the night preceding Easter, bore into the 
churches waving lights, and there watched for the 
dawn of the resurrection morning. It is not sur- 
prising that cities were splendidly illuminated, and 
the vicinity of the churches was transfigured into a 
sea of fire. Neither is it surprising that many in 
the early church expected that on Easter night 
Christ would come again, receiving his people unto 
himself and then ascending his throne to pass judg- 
ment on his foes. 

A Literal Tomb. 

We cannot actually accept the invitation of the 
angel and visit the place where the Lord lay. The 
hand of time, and the hands alike of superstition 
and infidelity have made it impossible for us to 



2J2 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

know, with exactness, the place of Christ's sepulcher. 
We can, however, in spirit visit that tomb to-day 
and rejoice in the great lessons which it so em- 
phatically teaches. As we stand beside this tomb we 
are reminded that Jesus Christ was literally dead. 
No child of humanity was ever more truly dead than 
was Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and the King of 
Glory. There is absolutely no room for doubt on 
this point. We know that a Mosaic statute forbade 
that the corpses of criminals should remain unburied 
after sunset. As the day of Christ's crucifixion was 
nearing its close, permission was begged of Pilate 
to have the legs of the convicts broken that thus their 
death should be hastened, and their burial completed 
before sunset. Pilate granted this request. Soldiers, 
therefore, broke the legs of the robbers crucified 
with Jesus. When they came to him, however, they 
found that he was already dead. These soldiers 
were ignorant of the fact that a Scripture fifteen 
hundred years old had said : " A bone of him shall 
not be broken." The speedy death of Christ caused 
great surprise to friends and foes alike. We recog- 
nize the influence of the sufferings which he had 
endured in hastening his death ; but his death came 
more quickly than we could have expected, even 
after making due allowance for his sorrowful Pass- 
over, his sleepless night, his shameful arrest, the 
traitor's kiss, and the bloody sweat. It seems well- 
nigh certain that Doctor Stroud is entirely correct in 
his instructive treatise " On the Physical Cause of 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 273 

the Death of Christ/' He maintains, by numerous and 
apparently conclusive arguments, that Christ's death 
was not due merely to his crucifixion, but that all 
its symptoms show that there was a literal rupture 
of the walls of the heart. In the strictest physio- 
logical, as well as in the deepest moral sense, Christ 
died of a broken heart. This conclusion is in har- 
mony with ancient prophecy, as well as with modern 
medical science. 

The soldiers, however, are determined to make as- 
surance doubly sure; they therefore rudely thrust 
a great spear into his side, and forthwith there 
flowed blood and water. The beloved John years 
afterward said : " This is he that came by water 
and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, 
but by water and blood." We thus have a striking 
fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah, regarding 
the fountain that was opened to the house of David 
for sin and uncleanness. With the utmost literal- 
ness, as well as with the tenderest spirituality, we 
can sing with Toplady: 

Rock of ages, cleft for me, i 

Let me hide myself in Thee ; 

Let the water and the blood, 

From thy riven side which flowed, 

Be of sin the double cure, 

Cleanse me from its guilt and power. 

We are thus absolutely certain that Jesus died; 
that his was not a case of syncope. The words of 
the Apostle Paul are literally true when he says: 



274 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

" Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip- 
tures."" His death was an expiatory offering on ac- 
count of our sins. He did not die merely as a 
martyr, but as a vicarious sacrifice. This truth the 
Apostle Paul taught as one of the great and funda- 
mental truths on which the church at Corinth, and 
the church throughout the world has been founded. 
No doctrine is more certain and significant than that 
Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip- 
tures. His burial was attended by every circum- 
stance of affection and honor. Joseph of Arima- 
thea and Nicodemus, both of whom were members 
of the Sanhedrin, assisted in removing his body 
from the cross and preparing it for burial. We can 
well imagine that woman's tender hand assisted in 
this sacred service. There is no bier on which the 
body may be borne, but the hands of love gently bear 
it to the new tomb awaiting its reception. Let us 
lay the regal head, with those closed eyes, on the 
breast of the beloved John as the body is carried to 
its temporary tomb. In silence and sorrow it is 
laid on its clean, cold, rocky bed ; the loving disciples 
reverently withdraw and the great stone is rolled to 
the mouth of the sepulcher. Pilate furnished the 
guard, and these soldiers stretched a cord across the 
great stone and stamped the ends, where they were 
fastened, with the imperial seal of the great Caesar. 
Was there ever so solemn a burial as this? There 
lies the Lord of life and glory, motionless, shrouded, 
entombed, while the Roman sentries, spear in hand, 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 275 

march to and fro before the tomb, preserving in- 
violate the seal of the mighty Csesar. 

A Garden Tomb. 

Having accepted the invitation of the angel, and 
having come to the place where the Lord lay, we 
discover that the tomb is in a garden. This is a 
strange place in which to find a tomb; men do not 
usually adorn gardens with tombs. We are, how- 
ever, distinctly informed that " in the place where he 
was crucified there was a garden, and in that garden 
a sepulcher." In that sepulcher the sacred body of 
the holy Saviour was laid. We are silent with 
amazement as we reflect upon the environment of 
this tomb. There do not seem to have been other 
tombs in this garden ; this tomb alone is observable. 
We have here a strange mingling of opposites; 
gardens stand for life, for beauty; but tombs for 
corruption, decay, and death. Beautiful lessons, 
however, are taught by this commingling of ap- 
parent opposites. Every garden has its grave ; this 
is true of the garden of the church, of the home, and 
of the heart. Every path in life, if pursued suffi- 
ciently long, leads us to a tomb. This is the sad 
side of life ; this fact introduces the element of sol- 
emnity, and sometimes of tragedy, into every home 
and heart. 

There is, however, another side to this sad 
thought: while it is true that in every garden 
there is a tomb, it is also true that around every 



276 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

tomb there may be a garden. This thought is inex- 
pressibly sweet. The tomb of every true believer is 
in the garden of faith, of hope, of light, of love, of 
life. Around that tomb flowers of indescribable 
fragrance and unspeakable beauty bloom. Around 
that tomb birds of paradise sing their sweetest song, 
and angels of heaven sit, filling the tomb and the 
garden with the splendor of their presence, and 
making the garden of the tomb prophetic of the 
paradise of God. Upon the stone rolled to the 
mouth of the sepulcher of every believer, we may 
engrave the triumphant words of the Apostle Paul : 
" O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is 
thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The grave 
is now beautiful because in it once lay Jesus Christ. 
He has robbed it of its terrors ! He has sweetened it 
with the perfumes of paradise; he has illumined it 
with the light of heaven. Standing beside the grave 
we can now hear the words of the voice from 
heaven, " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." 
Christ's sepulcher was in a human garden, and that 
sepulcher transformed that garden into God's acre. 

A Costly Tomb. 

It is observable, as we stand beside this tomb, 
that it was a beautiful and costly tomb. This fact 
greatly surprises us when we remember that Jesus 
said, with infinite sadness : " The foxes have holes, 
and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 277 

man hath not where to lay his head." How came it 
to pass that this houseless, homeless, and often 
friendless man was buried in a costly tomb? The 
question is full of interest, and its answer abounds 
in instruction. Seven hundred years before his 
death, Isaiah, the Evangelical Prophet, foretold that 
death and this burial. His words are profoundly 
significant : 

He made his grave with the wicked, 
And with the rich in his death. 

Nothing could be more unlikely than that this an- 
cient prophecy could be fulfilled. Jesus died on the 
cross as a felon. At the time of his death Judea was 
a Roman province. We would expect that the 
Roman criminal code would prevail, and that his 
body would remain on the cross until it was con- 
sumed by ravenous creatures, or wasted by decom- 
position. If this custom had prevailed the body of 
Jesus would never have received burial. Observe 
how marvelously the ancient prophecy came to be 
fulfilled. Moses ordained that the corpses of crim- 
inals should be buried on the day of their execution ; 
this Mosaic requirement the Roman government per- 
mitted to prevail in the case of Jesus. It is to be ob- 
served, also, that the Jews, in this special case, would 
naturally desire that the body of Jesus should receive 
a shameful burial. But the day after the crucifixion 
was the Jewish sabbath, and this particular sabbath 
was the great Passover sabbath, one of the most 



278 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

sacred days of the Hebrew year. It thus came to 
pass that the Jews desired to hasten the ignominious 
burial before sunset, because at that hour their sab- 
bath began. Christ's death did not take place until 
three o'clock in the afternoon; the time, therefore, 
was extremely limited before the hour of sunset. 
We see on what a minute pivot the fulfilment of 
prophecy, uttered hundreds of years before, was del- 
icately balanced. When the soldiers came to hasten 
the death of Jesus by breaking his legs, as we have 
already seen, they found that Jesus was even then 
dead. The further proof of his death was found 
by the thrust of the spear, and the flowing forth of 
blood and water. Jesus is, therefore, actually dead. 
Shall he not now be placed in a malefactor's grave ? 
This result seemed almost inevitable. Doubtless 
his enemies were even then preparing to take down 
his body and to bury it with the robbers with whom 
he had been crucified. This burial would have ut- 
terly contradicted the ancient prophecy of Isaiah. 
Then came the visit of Joseph and Nicodemus ; then 
was granted their request by Pilate; then came the 
tender burial of Jesus by his loving friends, who 
placed him in Joseph's new and costly tomb. 

Suppose that Joseph had not made this request of 
Pilate ; suppose that Pilate had not granted this re- 
quest of Joseph ; suppose that either the request or 
the consent of Pilate had been a few minutes later. 
The ancient prophecy would not have been fulfilled, 
and Jesus would have been buried in the grave of a 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 279 

criminal. How marvelous are these events in the 
ordering of God's providence ! It thus came to pass 
that God's crucified and beloved Son, notwithstand- 
ing the designs of his foes, received most honorable 
burial. Indeed, his honors began the moment he 
died, the sacrifice for human sin. If he is to be 
buried, honorable members of the Sanhedrin shall 
be among his bearers; if he is to be buried, costly 
spices will enwrap him with his shroud; if he is to 
be buried, he will be laid in the costly tomb of the 
honorable Joseph. When he bowed his head in 
death he paid the last debt due to the justice of God, 
as the vicarious sacrifice for human guilt. Immedi- 
ately his honors began and continued until he lay in 
august repose in his superb tomb. He, who was 
the Rock of Ages, lay in the tomb of rock until he 
came forth in triumph in his resurrection. In the 
wonderful description given by the Apostle Paul, in 
the second chapter of Philippians, of the humiliation 
of Christ, we follow that humiliation from Christ's 
conscious equality with God, as it comes down step 
by step, until we see Christ obedient unto death, even 
the death of the cross. With that death Christ's hu- 
miliation reached its lowest point. Immediately his 
glorious ascent began. We follow him upward as 
God highly exalted him, until we see him enthroned 
with the name that is above every name, and at that 
name all things in heaven and earth and under the 
earth bow in perfect submission. Fitting, then, was 
it that Christ's tomb should be beautiful and costly. 



280 advent and other sermons 

An Orderly Tomb. 

We observe that the grave-clothes with which 
Joseph and Nicodemus had swathed the body were 
carefully wrapped up and not lying in a disorderly 
heap. The napkin, which Mary herself may have 
helped to bind around the thorn-marked brow, was 
folded in a place by itself. Who folded these cere- 
ments of the tomb ? Was this a work of love by the 
hands of angels? It is more likely that the hands 
of Jesus himself arranged these garments. Rising 
in glory and majesty he would not leave the tomb in 
disorder. If the tomb had been rifled by his foes the 
grave-clothes would not have been carefully adjusted 
by them in their necessary haste. If his friends had 
carried away the body to be buried elsewhere they 
would have required the grave-clothes for that 
burial. It is certain that Christ slept until the ap- 
pointed hour dawned and then rose in divine dignity 
and sublime majesty, and went forth as conqueror 
of death and the grave. He was never again to need 
the garments of the dead. With the utmost delibera- 
tion he left the tomb. The effect of this orderly 
grave on the beloved John was most marked : " He 
saw and believed." What did he believe? Simply 
that the tomb was empty ? That fact was sufficiently 
obvious; it needed no additional certification. He 
believed that Jesus was risen from the dead. His 
nature, quieter and deeper than that of the Apostle 
Peter, the more readily laid hold of this sublime 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 28l 

truth. While Peter, in his impulsiveness, was the 
first to enter the tomb, John, in his thoughtfulness, 
was the first to believe in the resurrection. He was 
really the first person in the whole world fully to be- 
lieve in this glorious truth. His faith was stronger 
than that of Peter, and his loving nature enabled 
him to lay hold of this sublime truth with the utmost 
tenacity and simplicity of faith. We too may, with 
the Apostle John, behold this orderly tomb, and see 
and believe. 

An Empty Tomb. 

It is especially to be emphasized that it is an 
empty tomb. We saw the Roman soldiers marching 
with their spears to and fro to preserve Caesar's seal. 
The solemn hours pass ; perhaps the morning is now 
dawning. Congress recently issued a special edition 
of Thomas Jefferson's Bible. It will be remembered 
that he made selections from the Bible, omitting all 
that he deemed supernatural; he confines himself 
simply to the moral teaching of Jesus. His Bible ends 
with the words : " There laid they Jesus and rolled 
a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and de- 
parted." 

The Bible of the evangelists, however, does not 
end the history of Jesus Christ with those words. 
We shall see that the stone has been rolled away for- 
ever, that his tomb is empty, and that he is to-day a 
living Saviour, triumphant at the right hand of God, 
and ruler over millions of joyous and trustful men 



282 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

and women. Behold an angel of the Lord, with ap- 
pearance like lightning and raiment white as snow, 
rolls away the stone and seats himself thereon. 
Caesar's seal is broken; the Roman guard stands 
aghast; their spears are ready to drop from their 
nerveless hands. No mortal actually saw Christ in 
the act of rising; God performs his divinest things 
in silence and beyond the sight of men. Soon the 
women approach the tomb; they learn from the 
angels that Jesus is not there but is risen, and they 
hear the angelic invitation : " Come, see the place 
where the Lord lay." We have accepted that invi- 
tation, we have studied some of the characteristics 
of that tomb; now we are especially rejoiced to find 
that it is empty. We can say with Phillips Brooks : 

Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; 
Death is strong, but life is stronger ; 
Stronger than the dark, the light; 
Stronger than the wrong, the right; 
Faith and hope triumphant say- 
Christ will rise on Easter Day. 

In the empty grave of Jesus, the corner-stone of 
the Christian church is laid. The resurrection of 
Jesus, changing his figure, is the keystone of the 
arch of divine revelation. This empty grave gives 
us assurance that Christ's work of redemption was 
completed. Not alone on Pilate's cross, but in 
Joseph's tomb did that work receive its divine cer- 
tification, as to its completion and acceptance. When 
Jesus Christ came forth in triumph from the grave, 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 283 

angels, men, and devils, were taught that his work 
was finished, and that his triumph was complete. 
He had himself staked all on his resurrection. He 
had affirmed that he had power to lay down his life 
and to take it again. In the most solemn manner 
did his resurrection ratify that affirmation, and ful- 
fil this prophecy. It gives uniqueness to the Chris- 
tian religion. There are founders of other religions 
— Confucius, Zoroaster, Mohammed — these foun- 
ders all died, but did ever one of them rise from the 
dead? Christianity stands alone in that respect 
among the religions of the race. The resurrection is 
the absolutely unique fact of Christianity ; the resur- 
rection is the majestic assurance of the reality of 
our Christian faith and hope. The resurrection in- 
volved the death, the death implied the life, and the 
life necessitated the birth. It thus comes to pass 
that Joseph's empty tomb is in unique harmony with 
Bethlehem's holy manger. 

The resurrection of Christ assures us that we now 
have a living Saviour ; the permanently dead Saviour 
is unwelcome in art and utterly undesirable and un- 
truthful in re ligion. The Roman Church has erred 
in exalting the dead Christ at the expense of the liv- 
ing Christ. We desire no Pieta, no statue of the 
dead Christ with the Virgin, or sorrowing women, 
or angels. We prefer to hear the angels say : " He 
is not here, for he is risen." We need the atoning 
work of Christ's historic death; but we need, also, 
the sanctifying influence of Christ's risen and glori- 



284 ADVENT AND OTHER SERMONS 

fied life. We need more than a divine statue; we 
must have the inspiration of a risen, exalted, and 
living Christ as Friend and Saviour. Ours is not 
the church of the Entombment; ours is the church 
of the Resurrection ; ours is not the church alone of 
the Atoning Death; ours is also the church of the 
Heavenly Life. To-day we hail the divine Man, 
who marches forth in exultant might as the first- 
born from the dead; to-day we utter no Miserere 
for an embalmed Galilean, but we sing a Te Deum 
for the risen, enthroned, and crowned Immanuel. 

We also have a personal interest in this glorious 
resurrection. We see that the apostles made the 
resurrection one of the important themes of their 
preaching, the Apostle Paul declaring that " If 
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and 
your faith is also vain." The resurrection is the 
crowning miracle of Christianity to-day. If this 
event be true, then all other facts in Christ's life are 
credible, for no fact can be greater than his resurrec- 
tion from the dead. In that resurrection we have 
a prophecy of our own victory over death and the 
grave. Death has been the grim and inexorable 
tyrant, whom tears never softened and wealth never 
bribed. Only two of the many millions of humanity 
in the olden time passed into the spirit world with- 
out tasting death. But in the case both of Enoch 
and Elijah death was not really mastered, because 
they were withdrawn from the conflict before they 
grappled with this fierce foe. Christ alone entered 



THE EMPTY TOMB OF JESUS 285 

the dreary prison-house of death's domain and came 
forth in triumph leading death captive in his train. 
When he arose on that first Easter morning he 
bade adieu to the grave forevermore. Empty as 
was Joseph's tomb, so empty on some glad Easter 
morning shall be the tombs of the world. We can- 
not fully now ask with the Apostle Paul : " O death, 
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy vic- 
tory ? " But that victory, in all its blessed fulness, 
awaits us, when the great day of resurrection shall 
come. Then shall we be able to say, joining with 
the triumphal songs of saints and seraphs, angels 
and archangels : " Thanks be to God who giveth 
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 







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